Calf Loves Mother's Milk!

Ahhhh (or should I say moooooo)- it's always sweet to watch the baby-mother bond! I loved breast-feeding my baby 31 years ago. He was a very sensitive, fussy baby who was difficult to soothe. Even though I am an occupational therapist and worked for 2 years in an early intervention program (I went into labor on my last day of employment there) I had no idea that not all babies cried so frequently, wanted to nursed all the time and took hours of settling down to sleep and then woke up 3 hours later for more TLC. I read “The Art of Breast Feeding” while pregnant and the concepts totally meshed with my values. I think most people love books that confirm a previously help belief system and lucky for my son, I was happy to nurse on demand and have him sleep with us on a Futon on the floor. The room was carpeted and babyproofed, so sometimes he rolled away during the night. Yikes! I have digressed from the adorable baby calf in the video!

Like all babies, baby cow- who I will name Effie is hungry, has a strong desire to stimulate the mouth area and doesn’t care that a sibling is longingly waiting at the wings for a turn. Mom seems more concerned about swiping away flies. This is late October at Appleton Farm In Ipswich, Massachusetts. The scenery is stunning and the babies are active. I’ve become a vegan over the past year and won’t be buying the cheese sold at the farm at the time of this writing. However, I have fond memories of the cheese being delicious, especially the goat cheese. I make no judgements here about eating choices…. I just love watching a mammal feed her baby.

Effie is getting lots of good sensory stimulation especially to the tactile and proprioceptive sensory systems. The word “tactile” refers to our sense of touch. The skin is our largest sensory organ because it is everywhere. Effie is getting good deep pressure tactile stimulation around that mouth and face while sucking. In addition, I think that her head whacking action provides proprioceptive sensory stimulation to both baby and mom. We all have sensory receptors called “proprioceptors” in our muscles and joints that get stimulated when force is used. For example, a person stimulates her proprioceptors when she carries a heavy child around, scrubs poop off a blanket or a toddler breast-feeds. I bet Effie and her mom are both enjoying all that great sensory stimulation!

Learn more about activity adaptations on my website and blog:
http://www.RecyclingOT.com
http://www.RecyclingOT.blogspot.com
http://www.FromFlappingtoFunction.com