San Diego has many networks for Natural and
Attachment Parenting families. These include:

Attachment Parenting Support Groups in North County, Central, and East Counties

Several Attachment Parenting, Natural Family, and Homeschool Playgroups

Some Wonderful Schools and Homeschooling Resources

There is also a great "San Diego Natural Families" Yahoo chat group, where you can e-mail with other San Diego families about all kinds of natural parenting ideas.

E-mail to receive a referral list of "Attachment Friendly" or "Natural Family Friendly" doctors, dentists, schools, and much more, recommended over the years by our attachment families.

Infant Nutrition and Healthy Parenting Speaker for Lactation Consultants, Midwives and Natural Family Audiences

Dr. Palmer is available to speak by invitation.

Palmer has these very current two-hour PowerPoint presentations available:

The Chemistry of Attachment
When un-hampered by imposed fears of spoiling or hindering maturation, the biochemical interplays of frequent, close contact between parent and child create positive life-long brain alterations in all who participate.

Linda Palmer will discuss the various hormonal and neuronal involvements in creating a parent and in parent-infant interactions leading to bonding. She will present the varied lifelong repercussions of different levels of attachment or detachment experienced during infancy in reaction to parenting behaviors. The interplay of breastmilk, breastfeeding, and bottle nursing in these processes will be portrayed. 

Beyond Breastmilk
Linda Palmer discusses the health and nutritional aspects of starting solid foods and developing positive lifetime eating habits in children. Common infant feeding information is often based more on dairy, formula & baby food industry advice and does not encompass the wide spectrum of the healthiest options.

Palmer explores the optimal introduction of solids in terms of age and kind and presents archeological studies of weaning. The ramifications of early supplementation in breastfed infants and the nutrition and potential consequences of homemade formulas, goat's milk, cow’s milk, raw milk and soy will be presented, along with the evidence behind food allergies in breastfeeding babies and the truth about calcium needs in children. 

Palmer reviews the evidence in terms of timing of solids, covering calorie, protein, iron, zinc, fatty acid needs and more, and fnds no evidence of a need to begin any kind of supplementation to the average exclusive breastmilk diet in the first year of life after term birth, and beyond. She contents that solid food introduction for formula-fed babies is a very different situation than that for breastfed children and presents these variations.

SOME PAST 1 HOUR LECTURES:

Small Bodies and Big Industry
Dr. Palmer will discuss health and political issues involving formula supplementation, dairy and soy consumption and commercial baby food. Surprising findings about iron, calcium, vitamin D, fluoride supplementation, bond development and infant caries will be presented.

Considering Healthy Parenting Concepts
Dr. Palmer will discuss how and why we have drifted away from many natural and healthy child care practices, and the movement to return to providing healthier childhoods for optimal adult outcomes, both emotionally and physically.

Considering the Immature Immune System
The unique fetal and infant immune systems will be discussed in terms of development, nutrition, challenges, common food intolerances, common drug usages, and hygiene concepts.

When it Has to be Formula
Linda Palmer consults regularly in infant nutrition and bonding and receives numerous pleas from mothers who, due to breast surgeries, chemotherapy needs, and other physiological abnormalities are simply unable to provide adequate breastmilk to their babies. So many mothers are simply told to feed commercial formula and are given no more information about the health consequences of various choices available and possible means to improve upon standard artificial feeding. Many report the topic to be taboo for their consultants and outside the scope of most pediatricians. Palmer provides information about alternative feeding methods and means of optimizing the health, development and bonding potentials of artificially fed babies. Beyond finding donor breastmilk for the early weeks, there are ways of improving upon a formula supplemented or total standard infant formula diet for babies.

Questions and Requests to LFPalmer@thebabybond.com