My Favorite Baby Essay

As the sixth child born to my parents, I was born to two individuals that understood parenting. That being said, my parents were overjoyed to find many easy qualities to my nature. They thought they had finally, according to my mother, done it right and had mastered parenting. Despite this, it is important to know that their next child, my younger sister was nothing like me. Interestingly, every child is different, and although there can be genetic similarity and environmental sameness, in the case of siblings, each human being is unique and different than the one before. And to my parents’ dismay, and as Berger points out, “a single case proves nothing.” (Ch.5 introduction) As one of twelve children I strive for uniqueness and to be the favorite of my parents, so it was thrilling to discover that I was my mom’s favorite baby because I was friendly and happy. Like all babies, I was born with the responses to environment that Erikson talks about on page 113. He speaks of the needs of children that signal their caregivers of their needs. Babies that are easy babies seem to understand their parents and simply any adults as their caregivers and respond

I was breast fed as a baby, like each of my siblings. My mother saw it as the natural way to raise me and as a stay at home mom, she could do so comfortably for about a year before she weaned me to bottle formula and baby food. It is noted in Berger, that during the 1970’s, bottle feeding was promoted, but recently the new understanding is that breast feeding is best because the breast milk composition can fluctuate according to baby’s signals and specific needs. (Page 146-147) Also, I began to eat rice cereal with baby food fruits around five or six months. And new foods were added slowly as I became more accustomed. My mom said that I followed normal growth patterns in terms of eating and diet, nothing out of the