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MYTH 7: FORMULA IS AS GOOD AS BREAST MILK. Thank goodness we have formula, in case a mom can't or chooses not to breastfeed, but it's important to note that science just can't

duplicate some properties in breast milk. Breast milk has hundreds of ingredients, like special proteins, enzymes, antibodies, that are missing from formula. And it contains so many

infection-fighting white blood cells that some doctors call breast milk “white blood.” As an extra bonus, nursing lowers a mom's risk of breast and ovarian cancer. MYTH 8: SOOTHING

BABIES TO SLEEP EVERY NIGHT MAKES THEM DEPENDENT ON IT. In truth, babies are born dependent on rocking and shushing. Every day and night — for nine months — the unborn baby is soothed to

sleep by the rich rhythms of the womb: constant rocking, loud rumbly sounds, with cuddly embrace in a protected little ball. By contrast, after birth we put the baby into a disorienting and

bizarre world where we expect the baby to sleep in a silent room, in a new, unnatural position totally stretched out on the back, in a totally still bed for 16 hours every day. MYTH 9:

BABIES GET SPOILED BY PARENTS WHO ALWAYS RESPOND TO THEIR CRYING. In the late 1800s, America's leading baby doctor, Emmett Holt, wrote: “Babies less than six months old should never be

played with at all.” By the 1920s, the question of whether to rock a baby was no longer open to discussion. Quite frankly, no one dared admit to doing it. Fast forward a century; parents

still worry about spoiling their babies. But modern parents are taught to think of the early months as the fourth trimester of pregnancy, a time when it is almost impossible to snuggle a

baby too much. In fact, studies show that during the first six months responding promptly to a baby's fussing establishes a child's core foundation of confidence and trust, called

secure attachment. MYTH 10: MOMS ARE BETTER CAREGIVERS THAN DADS. Baby care responsibilities always have fallen on the shoulders of women. Men were seen as peripheral, if not bumbling.

However, while women are utterly superior to men at breastfeeding, baby caring requires a totally different skill, one that men are particularly good at: womb impersonation. Today's

parents are taught to imitate the baby's beloved womb sensations via a method called the 5 S's: • Swaddling • Side/stomach position (to calm fussing, never for sleep) • Shushing •

Swinging and • Sucking This approach is described in my parent guide _The Happiest Baby on the Block_. The 5 S's soothe babies by activating a recently discovered “off-switch” for

crying that all babies have called the “calming reflex." MYTH 11: STOMACH PAIN CAUSES COLIC. Jose Luis Pelaez Inc / Getty Images Colicky babies fuss inconsolably for two to three hours

a day. The word colic comes from ancient Greek, meaning “crampy stomach pain.” Up until the 1970s, doctors treated these little screamers with drops of opium (called paregoric). Amazingly,

paregoric was sold by the gallon at pharmacies across the western world.