Do babies need to be held? Is there power in human touch? How much is too much? If you ever thought about these questions, this blog post is for you.
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Have you ever been told you are holding your baby too much? I’ve heard that. Whether you are a new parent or have parented a few, there is power in studying about touch. Human touch and why it is so beneficial to your baby. We will also analyze if there is such a thing as too much touch.
If you want to know more about why babies need to be held, keep reading. This post is for you.
You might also like to read our post about Tips for Successful Breastfeeding: 9 Secrets Every Mother Should Know.
“Hold me close and don’t let go…” The poignant lyrics of beloved childhood lullabies capture an essential truth – babies need to be held. It’s not just that newborns seem to fit perfectly curled up against our hearts. The innate biological drive to nurture our young through affectionate caring touch also serves a profound developmental purpose.
Yes, babies need to be held for protection and basic caregiving. However, a growing body of research highlights that loving touch through activities like skin-to-skin contact, babywearing, responsive holding, and baby massage provide vital nurturing interaction benefiting social-emotional growth, secure attachment, brain development, and more in infancy and beyond.
1. Holding a Baby Promotes Bonding & Attachment
Babies held more cry less. By meeting an infant’s needs to be soothed, rocked, sung to, and cared for with empathy, parents facilitate a secure attachment between caregiver and child. This forms the foundation for confidence, resilience, and independence later. Feelings of safety and trust bloom best when cultivated carefully through tender touch.
The concept of attachment was first created by a psychoanalyst called John Bowlby (1907 – 1990) whose research showed how a person’s mental health and behavioral problems could be attributed to early childhood and it’s first human interactions. Bowlby suggests that there is a critical period of 2.5 years for developing attachment with caregivers. If an attachment does not take place during this time, the person might never be able to form one at all. Read more about it here.
How does a baby develop attachment? By being taken care of by people who cuddle, give love and affection, and respond to babies cues of hunger, cold, fear when they come. When you are caring for your baby you are showing that the world is a safe place and your baby can thrive in that secure attachment.
2. Babies Need to Be Held: Holding a Baby Supports Brain Growth
Loving stroking of baby’s skin triggers the release of “cuddle chemicals” like oxytocin and serotonin while decreasing the production of the stress hormone cortisol. These changes in a baby’s biochemistry impact the developing brain architecture and connectivity by enhancing the maturation of regions related to social skills, relationships, and coping. Nurturing touch aids the construction of neural foundations they will build in life.
3. Babies Need to Be Held: Holding a Baby Boosts Immune Protection
Preemies receiving regular gentle massages gain weight faster and get discharged from NICUs sooner. Beyond infancy, children shown affection through early positive touch suffer less anxiety and fewer illnesses by having more robust immune response capabilities. The protective health effects of caring contact start immediately but last years.
4. Babies Need to Be Held: Holding a Baby Enables Better Sleep
The soothing sensations of skin-to-skin contact, rocking, carrying, or babywearing help regulate newborn breathing, body temperature, and circulation while signaling the nervous system to relax. Babies who sleep sweetly on their parent’s chest benefit from better quality rest supporting crucial development. These nurturing sleep associations continue to yield benefits.
5. Holding a Baby Aids Digestion & Growth
The intimate skin contact and motion from touch during feeding times gently stimulate the baby’s digestive tract aiding food absorption and reducing colic or reflux. The resulting ability to retain more nutrition from feedings fuels growth helping babies gain healthy weight. Plus, mere minutes of baby massage before bed has been shown to enhance stomach function and improve sleep too!
6. Holding a Baby Relieves Discomfort
The snug swaddle of a baby carrier, the massage of teeny toes, or the patter of a parent’s heartbeat heard with an ear pressed close are all tactile tools shown effective for alleviating various types of baby discomfort from belly troubles to the pain of shots. Touch is a natural analgesic that starts soothing immediately. According to doctors, you just can’t hold a baby too much.
7. Holding a Baby Prevents Flat Head Syndrome
You have probably seen more and more babies wearing a helmet. These helmets are not for protection during play but were developed to help reshape babies heads due to a syndrome called flat head syndrome or Positional Plagiocephaly. Babies that are placed on their back to sleep (which is the safest position) can develop a flatter area and might need to use one of these helmets to reshape it. Read more one it here. Babies that are blessed to be held more often than just placed in flat surfaces to sleep might also escape from the need of helmet therapy.
Conclusion
This post was all about why babies need to be held. The reasons supporting why babies thrive best when held often constitute the very arguments for prioritizing precious bonding contact despite the demands of modern living. While parents juggle so much, we mustn’t forget a caregiver’s loving touch catalyzes foundational neurological, immunological, and emotional developmental processes now planting seeds of health and happiness that blossom for a lifetime.
So keep cuddling. Continue carrying. Don’t stop the sweet snuggles. Because our babies don’t just want to be held – they need our tender touch to thrive both now and later.
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