Linda Folden Palmer, DC

Science is Dr. Palmer's first love and continuing inspiration. Her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois was in chemistry with a minor in biology. While attending the National College of Chiropractic, Palmer received a Bachelor of Science in human biology as she received her Doctor of Chiropractic.  Visit her website here.

Prior the birth of her son, Dr. Palmer ran a successful chiropractic practice for eleven years, focusing on nutrition and women's health issues. Her practice emphasized diagnosis and patient education.

With the birth of Dr. Palmer's son in 1995, she was confronted with his severe health complications and astounded by the extreme lack of accurate or helpful information from doctors or books. Her usual passion for research turned toward infant health and parenting. Her extensive reviews of science and medical research revealed huge conflicts between what is found scientifically and what is standard protocol in pediatric offices. Her research in this area led to writing The BABY BOND.

Dr. Palmer led attachment parenting support groups for five years, also coordinating the various groups throughout San Diego County. She has also served as an instructor in anatomy and physiology and a research associate for drugless cancer therapy research. She currently spends her time consulting in infant nutrition and attachment parenting, writing parenting articles and books, speaking to family and professional audiences, and being a wife and mother.

A message from Dr. Palmer:

Many of the problems that today's parents face while raising their babies are associated with the new parenting and feeding practices that have encroached upon our culture over the last century. These practices have been promoted for several reasons, mostly linked to industry profits. (Colic, for instance, is far more common in the US than in many other parts of the world. It is generally treated with drugs or lactose-free formula, and with little success.)

Few will tell you the research findings and the feeding and parenting solutions that work. Ear infections are also more pervasive today. Science shows that cow's milk proteins and other proteins in formula or mother's diet are the chief causes, and that antibiotics, the common treatment, statistically create more problems than solutions. Diabetes, bowel disease, arthritis, and cancers, on the rise in both children and adults, are also strongly linked to infant feeding choices.

In the psychological realm, parents have been encouraged to ignore their babies' cries and their own very strong urges to respond, but I have found no sound research to support any long-term benefits of this kind of detached parenting. In fact, a mountain of psychology studies suggest that responsive parenting is best.

Email Dr. Palmer at: LFPalmer@TheBabyBond.com. She'd love to hear from you.