From the day our babies are born, we chart their height and weight, waiting for them to walk and talk.

Notre Dame researcher Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D. studies children closely, and says parents also need to help their children develop empathy and compassion.

“In terms of brain development, those first five years are particularly important,” she explains.

Important for raising empathetic children.

“My hypothesis is that the way we are raising our children in this country right now is decreasing empathy.”

Narvaez says that, from birth, our children often spend too much time alone, and look for pleasure in things rather than relationships.

She says parents can safely sleep with their babies, and encourages them to do so.

“Can you imagine taking a puppy that's just been born and putting them in their own room by themselves? Can you imagine feeding them a bottle instead of their mother’s milk? Can you imagine keeping them under bright lights or putting them in front of the television?”

“You want to pretty much keep them close, physically, as much as you can, because that's going to help their brain wire itself, not only for just regular life, but also for relationships.”

Paige Risser has two children and belongs to a holistic moms network.

As babies, her children slept with Paige and her husband. Never letting their children just "cry it out," she finds Narvaez' research reassuring.

“They aren't frightened of the dark, they don't have nightmares, they feel secure and safe and they know where we are,” said Risser.

Carol Curran has three children and also believes everything she does with her children will help wire a healthy brain.

“Maybe the house doesn't always get cleaned, or maybe I don't do every possible activity with them, but I’m holding them and taking my time to read with them, and those are good things,” said Curran

Narvaez says other cultures keep their babies close, and that we should be doing the same.

“You want touching, paying attention to emotions, you want to interact with your child, being close to them as much as possible,” she explained.

Dr. Narvaez recommends several practices for parents in order to raise a child with an ethical brain:

• Hold your child


• Promote eye gaze


• Breastfeed


• Play -- safe and unstructured play, including fantasy and rough & tumble


• Avoid letting your baby "cry it out"


• Limit electronic games and TV.
  

She suggests no television before the age of two. It has been linked to ADHD later in life.

For more on this story and Dr. Narvaez’ study, click on the Big Red Bar.