Abstract
Essential tensions in infant rearing
Highlights
Among ‘WEIRD’ populations, fragmented sleep seemingly emerges around 6 months of age [2]
Even though milk is a ‘maternal product’ [2], this does not mean that milk synthesis is always at the mother’s evolutionary optimum
It has emerged that fetal signals influence milk synthesis dynamically across lactations in cows in ways that have an impact on maternal investment in current and future offspring, and similar effects are likely operating in humans [13]
Summary
Among ‘WEIRD’ populations (western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic [5]), fragmented sleep seemingly emerges around 6 months of age [2]. Does infant demand for night feedings function to satisfy metabolic requirements or to increase maternal metabolic load to extend IBI, or both simultaneously, or in turn across time? Just as infants are active agents in the maternal care they elicit, they can affect the milk their mothers synthesize.
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