This entry was posted on Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 7:28 am and is filed under Infant development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Babies are born to connect. Scientists are now starting to understand why warm, reponsive early care helps infants thrive. It turns out that bonding or attachment is one of the most important factors in development. If a child feels secure that his physical and emotional needs will be met then he can use his energy to work on other areas of brain development. In BrightFrom the Start, Jill Stamm writes “What sounds simply warm and fuzzy creates demonstrable changes in the brain and nervous system. Emotion affects attention…and attention, in turn, affects learning. How secure a baby feels therefore influences all the development that follows.” Bonding is not one event. It is the ongoing experience of attachment that forms between parent and child. You don’t need to do anything extraordinary in order to have healthy attachment.
In general, the things that foster bonding and attachment come naturally to parents such as smiling, talking to your baby, holding, soothing, and responding to his or her needs. Babywearing is a nice way to have baby close. You can’t spoil a baby by holding him too much, especially newborns. Other things you can do to develop a bond with your baby are as follows: 1. Infant massage. There are a number of studies that have documented the benefits of infant massage. It’s easy to learn and there are plenty of videos/DVDs on the market to teach you. 2. Respond quickly and predictably to infant’s cries. 3. Establish consistent routines for such activites as feeding, sleeping and bathing. 4. Slow activity down periodically (less rushing, calm atmosphere).
