Thank you for your article by Eileen Amy (Nov/Dec 2001 MCN) about the Interactive Newborn Bath Demonstration. I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of the infant/parent interactions. I am a public health nurse and work in the Maternal/Infant Support Services Program. I am also a master's student in Community Nursing at the University of Michigan. I have been searching for a nursing innovation project for my research class. I knew that I had my project as soon as I read the article. I think that many problems (feeding problems, misbehavior, child abuse, maternal depression) have some relationship to a mother's inability to read her child's cues. I hope to devise a program to teach parent's to read their child's cues, as you have described. This may take place either during home visits or in a school-based parent support group.

Congratulations on publishing Ms. Amy's excellent work on behalf of infants and their parents.

Michelle R. Datema, RN