A recent study published by the Journal of Development and Psychopathology shows that cuddling your baby can transform their DNA positively.
The impact snuggling has on babies has been identified long before this discovery. Moreover, this scientific fact shows that the effects of parents cuddling their babies are a huge deal.
Cuddling your baby comes almost naturally. Newborns, especially, are so cute and adorable that it becomes near impossible to resist them. Asides the physical cuteness babies posses, for psychological reasons cuddling them, needs to be done more frequently.
In the first three months of your baby’s life, how much you snuggle your baby determines the extent of their development as they get older.
Your arms replace the environment of the womb, which comes with numerous advantages for the foetus
With this in mind, let’s check out why you should snuggle your baby close more frequently.
- Higher IQ
World Health Organization disseminates a method known as the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC). The KMC is recommended to parents for their newborns as a way to improve neurodevelopment.
It manifests as consistent skin-to-skin contact after the baby is born. Research shows that children exposed to KMC grow up to have higher IQ, and KMC generally improves the cerebral function of babies.
- Reduce stress and anxiety
One reason babies cry is due to the confusion which can arise from stress and anxiety. However, cuddling your baby more reduces this stress. How? Their vasopressin and oxytocin levels (which are known as the love or cuddle hormone) increases.
When you hug your baby, it triggers the release of these hormones, ultimately reducing stress and anxiety levels. These hormones are well known to be essential factors in our social behaviours.
- Lowers developmental discomfort
As babies grow, they experience some pain, which is part of their development. Some ways they experience pain include teething, colic, and congestions. Babies experience these at some point as their bodies develop. The growing pains are particularly distressing.
As crying is their only means of communication, babies cry to signal their discomfort. Snuggling your baby close ameliorates the pain by offering an anchor of support.
- Incite calmness
Another effect of cuddling is that it encourages your baby to be calm. When you snuggle your baby close, the sound of your heart close to their ear does two things. One, it regulates their breathing. Two, it controls their heart rate. Both of these situations incite calmness.
You can prove this yourself that monitoring your breathing ultimately controls your heart rate. A steady heart rhythm makes you calm, and this is precisely how it works for babies too. Through your gentle touch, your baby feels less distressed.
- Weight gain
Cuddling is also associated with weight gain. When you hold your baby close, he depends on you to stay warm. What this does is that it reduces the number of calories a baby needs to burn to keep warm.
The fewer calories burned than consumed, the more fat accumulates. This cycle results in weight gain. So, it’s not how much your baby is eating; it is how much he can retain. Snuggling next to your baby helps him maintain more calories towards weight gain.
- Improve self-confidence and self-worthiness
Self-confidence and worthiness are traits that an individual builds over time. These are essential attributes. You can give your kids a head start in developing their self worth and self-confidence. Your cuddles demonstrate affection that increases as your baby grows. As a result, your baby will have this feeling of worthiness, which will boost confidence.
- Reduce the sense of helplessness
When babies fall ill, they are often too weak to play, and this gives a feeling of helplessness. When this happens, holding your baby will be a meaningful and loving kind of interaction.
Cuddling, in this case, lowers the feeling of helplessness that your baby might experience, as your cuddles allow them to interact with you.
There are more reasons why you need to cuddle your baby. What more, it takes nothing from you; in fact, it increases the bond you have with your infant. Your baby will grow up to be more physically and psychologically inclined. What do you think? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.