Kissing your baby is an expression of love and affection. Even infants understand that, as evidenced by my boys (now pre-schoolers) who as babies would often calm down from a tantrum when I gave them a hug and a kiss.
Kissing your baby has a lot of emotional benefits. When a mother shows her baby love by kisses, hugs and the like, it shows the baby that being sensitive to others needs and feelings is important. This in turn can help them relate as well as interact better with those around them.
A new study by MIT researchers provides evidence that babies and toddlers understand people have a close relationship if they are willing to share saliva via sharing food or kissing, reports Nell Greenfieldboyce for NPR.
Kisses and smiles
Gestures of affection involving physical contact with your baby, such as hugs and kisses, lead to a greater amount of growth hormones, ensuring complete development in childhood. Something as common and universal as kisses for a child can be really beneficial.
Babies as young as 4 months old differentiate between a parent's hug and a stranger's, new research finds. Share on Pinterest Research shows that even infants can tell the difference between a stranger's hug and that of a parent.
Cuddling and a Sense of Security
Your child will feel safe and warm. “Cuddling helps your baby develop a secure attachment to you.
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.
By about 4 to 6 months of age, babies become increasingly social and love to cuddle and laugh.
While raising babies, parents must remember that there is no such thing as too much affection, too much attention, or too much care. In fact, research proves that parenting is one aspect of adult life when doing things in excess is actually encouraged.
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.
Only you'll do for comfort
The moment your baby feels scared, stressed, or hurt, or a noise is too loud, and they seek you out for comfort, this is a clear sign of love. They are confident in the fact that you love them, take care of them, and comfort them when life gets a little scary.
A young developing brain learns to make sense of your reactions to his actions and tries to acts the same way. This is why you can see babies love to be kissed and cuddled and respond to you with happier reactions of beating their legs, hands, or wanting to be picked and held closer to a parent or guardian.
Why do babies get happy when you kiss them? It increases the sense of safety and happiness, enabling complete emotional development. It has calming effects, which helps your baby rest and sleep. It stimulates affective development and helps them learn to express their emotions.
Your newborn uses body language to show you when they want to connect with you and strengthen the bond between you. For example, your newborn might: smile at you or make eye contact. make little noises, like coos or laughs.
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.
One of my favorite things to do is show mothers how their baby can smell them from as far away as 1 to 2 feet.
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.
Why do I want to kiss my baby so much? It's not just because they're cute! 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.
Breastfeeding creates a bonding experience between mother and child because it promotes skin-to-skin contact, more holding and stroking. Many experts say that affectionate bonding during the first years of life helps lessen social and behavioral problems in both children and adults.
A lot of babies and toddlers go through a clingy stage. It mostly happens when they are between 10 and 18 months but it can start as early as six months old.
By 4 to 6 months, they will turn to you and expect you to respond when upset. By 7 or 8 months, they will have a special response just for you (they may also be upset by strangers). Your baby may also start to respond to your stress, anger or sadness.
By six months, babies will recognize the people they love, like grandparents, siblings, and of course, parents. Soon, they'll show a clear preference for those loved ones, displaying caution around strangers and even possibly developing some separation anxiety by nine months. They share your interests.
Studies have shown that infants as young as one month-old sense when a parent is depressed or angry and are affected by the parent's mood. Understanding that even infants are affected by adult emotions can help parents do their best in supporting their child's healthy development.
As early as three months, babies learn to recognize their parents or primary caregivers. And there staring is their way to communicate. Babies can't quite interact yet for the first few months, so their staring is their way of communicating with you.
Babies are drawn to attractive people
A baby may be staring at you because they think you're beautiful. We're not kidding! A decades-old experiment found that newborns and young infants spent more time staring at faces that adults deemed attractive.