Parenting online and lay literature on infant spanking: information readily available to parents.

Professional consensus exists against the spanking of infants based on the risk of escalation and injury. Moreover, infants are unable to recognize connections between their behavior and punishment and to modify their behavior in response. However, pediatricians and other health care professionals do not frequently discuss the issue of infant spanking with parents. Meanwhile, parents are increasingly seeking parenting information from other sources including the Internet and lay parenting books. Using content analysis methodology, online parenting sites and popular "how to" parenting books were reviewed with regard to the advisability of corporal punishment with infants. Results reveal that although the vast majority of online and popular print literature on infant parenting is developmentally sound, a small constituency of spanking advocates does exist. Given that some of the information available to parents contradicts professional consensus against the spanking of infants, it seems important for professionals concerned with the well being of infants to address the gaps in information and inherent dangers of infant spanking.