Japanese youngsters spend their first few years sleeping in the same bed with their parents.
For the Ache children of Paraguay, learning to walk is as traumatic as weaning in other cultures. Kung San tribe begin walking much sooner than the standard twelve month benchmark for American infants. Anthropologist Meredith Small makes these and other cross-cultural observations in her latest book, Our Babies, Ourselves. We may be pushed by the traditions of culture, or the approval or disapproval of family members, but in the end, all parents decide for themselves how to treat their children. Ethnopediatricians study parents and infants across cultures, exploring the effect different caretaking styles have on the health, well-being, and survival of infants.