Do you hug your babies often? If yes, then you should not stop hugging them. In fact, hug them even more because according to a new research, being physically affectionate during a baby’s development phase is more important than you think.
In other words, according to a research from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, the more you hug your baby, the more their brain will grow and develop.
The research included 125 babies, both full-term and premature, and the researchers were looking at how they responded to being touched physically.
They found that full-term babies responded better to physical affection than preterm babies. However, what’s interesting is that all babies who were given more physical affection by hospital staff or their parents showed better and stronger brain response.
According to Dr. Nathalie Maitre, a researcher behind the study, the results tell us that just a simple hug or rocking your baby in your arms can make a huge difference on their brain structure and development.
“Making sure that preterm babies receive positive, supportive touch such as skin-to-skin care by parents is essential to help their brains respond to gentle touch in ways similar to those of babies who experienced an entire pregnancy inside their mother’s womb,” says Dr. Nathalie Maitre.
All in all, physical touch and affection is crucial for brain development, especially in the development period of the babies.
So, hug and cuddle your babies as much as you can!
