In order to prevent serious health issues, anyone and everyone, including parents, should avoid kissing babies. Due to the rise in cases of RSV and other illnesses, it's extremely important for all individuals to be aware of the dangers of kissing babies.
Most babies' immune systems will be strong enough for kisses after 2 to 3 months. Until then, it's healthiest not to kiss the baby, painful though it may be.
Explicitly say “Please, don't kiss my baby”
If your visitors are tested and vaccinated, you can offer feet kisses and masked snuggles, but be explicit about not wanting people's faces in the vicinity of your little one.
Ideally, even grandparents “should not be kissing on the baby for at least the first few months,” Tan told me. Within a home, siblings attending day care and school—where it's easy to pick up germs—might also want to sheathe their smackeroos at first.
In fact, this is one of the most common methods of HSV-1 transmission. It's never safe to kiss someone, especially a baby, if you have a cold sore on or around your mouth. You should wait until all symptoms have fully disappeared before kissing, even if it's “just” the top of a baby's head.
Also, their lungs are much smaller so any inflammation to their airways is exponentially worse when the baby is smaller. RSV is spread through contact with contaminated respiratory droplets. Kissing, sharing drinks, or transferring things from mouth to mouth can transmit RSV.
Newborn babies have a weak immune system, which makes them easily prone to viral infections. The first month is pivotal, and therefore, it is best to prevent anyone from kissing the baby on the face (12).
During the first month of life, also ask visitors to avoid kissing around your infant's mouth and eye area.
Most of the time, it's totally fine to kiss your baby on the lips—unless you're dealing with a few very specific health issues, says the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The big concern, they say, is the herpes simplex virus (HSV).
Parents should try to limit the number of visitors their babies come in close contact with overall. Consider having extended family and friends wait two to three months until your baby's immune system is stronger to plan their visits.
So ask politely, be firm and stick to your guns. Explain that your request for them to refrain from kissing their grandchild isn't one that will last forever, just until they are older and their immune system is stronger. Everyone who comes into contact with your baby should follow safe hygiene practices.
But there's no evidence to suggest that you should stop kissing your baby or stop friends and family from kissing her. Put simply, your baby will not be at an increased risk of SIDS from a kiss. What may increase the risk of SIDS however, is how your baby's immune system responds to infections.
In most cultures it is okay for parents to kiss their child on the lips when they are very young. It is believed that this act can help increase parent-child bonds. However, some families and cultures are very uncomfortable with parents' kissing children on the lips, discouraging the act completely.
Kissing someone else's baby exposes them to so much more than germs (though I will address that, too). During a baby's first year, but especially in the first three months of life, they are especially vulnerable to germs as their immune system is essentially non-existent yet.
Grandparents and Hospital Visits
The mother may not want visitors when she is not looking or feeling her best, as may be the case after childbirth. The mother may desire privacy as she tries to establish breastfeeding. The parents may not want an audience as they get used to handling and changing their newborn.
Science says maternal biology drives mothers to kiss their babies as a way to protect their new immune system! Parents often describe themselves as “totally smitten” with their new little one.
A consultant paediatrician at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Agatha David, says kissing a newborn on the lips or any part of the face can lead to meningitis, a viral infection caused by herpes.
Babies love interaction as this is how most learn to navigate in the world. Kissing is a form of affection and most babies love unconditionally and enjoy any appropriate affection shared.
Your baby's relatively weak immune system, particularly in the first three months of their life, means that they are vulnerable to contracting viruses. Respiratory illnesses can easily be transferred to your baby through kissing, which poses a significant risk, as a child's lungs are only fully formed by age eight.
As long As the child does not object then there is nothing wrong with it. The father may come from a culture where that is done. Generally, a father kissing his son on the lips is not something that happens in the “American” culture-however that is defined. That does not mean there is anything wrong with doing it.
It Boosts Their Immune System
This will make sense very shortly. As a mother kisses her baby, she will consume the harmful pathogens (AKA bacteria) that have been sitting on the baby's skin, ready to make its way into the baby's mouth.
“It comes down to what your family dynamic is – just like any other cultural habit.” Khetarpal added that if you grew up kissing your parents on the lips this would be very normal for you, but if you didn't then it might seem unusual.
In short, yes: Babies do feel love. Even though it will be quite a while before they're able to verbalize their feelings, they can and do understand emotional attachment. Affection, for example can be felt.
Most parents and most courts believe that there is no real reason a child cannot spend alone time, even overnight, away from its mother after six to nine months old.