How many parents hate their newborns?

Men's Health has an article today (July 31, 2008) titled, "I Hate My Newborn Baby!": A new dad confesses: They're not always bundles of joy

It is true: babies are not always perfect. Sometimes the babies are wonderful, but our expectation of what babies actually are is often unrealistic. However, in the case of this article, which is heartbreaking and all too common, the suffering of the baby and the parents was probably avoidable.

How many parents think it's 'normal' for babies to scream in agony for 19 hours a day? How many sleep deprived parents schlep to the doctor's office on weekly basis switching formula in an effort to stop their baby's pain due to "a little intestinal distress" that "is fairly common and nothing to worry about".

Eventually, the doctor decides perhaps the baby has a milk allergy and switches to a soy formula, which makes the baby so much worse the parents decide they'll have to take him to the E.R., but just before they leave, he falls asleep and all is well from that point on.

A milk allergy. That's sort of an understatement. Human babies are not designed to consume cows milk, which is what formula is made of. In fact, the advice is to not give babies under one year cows milk. But because it is common for parents to give babies artificial baby milk to infants, newborn pain and suffering is now considered 'fairly common and nothing to worry about'.

Parents need to know that it doesn't have to be that way so they don't have to feel the guilt of hating their babies.