MANILA, Philippines - As your baby’s parents, you have the honor of being the baby’s first social encounter. From you, the baby will learn about right and wrong, action and reaction. It is from you that the baby eventually learns about love, patience, courage, and responsibility.
Since the baby learns about the world not through logic or emotion but through the senses, we need to focus our interaction with baby on what his senses take in:
Touch. Of all the five senses, touch is the most developed at the time of baby’s birth, so it is the most efficient way of letting communicating with him that this is a friendly world he is entering.
Therefore, touch your baby as much as you can. The sensation of skin against skin triggers the production of endorphins, which not only produces feelings of euphoria but also makes our senses sharper. There is also emerging evidence that the more we are touched, the more efficient of our immune system becomes.
Hearing. While it takes nearly a whole year before the baby can see as well as an adult, studies have shown that babies already have good hearing right from inside the womb.
Studies also show that babies stop to listen when their mother speaks. This is perhaps due to the fact that mother’s voice is the most familiar to the baby, so the baby finds it most attractive — this is a basic psychology law, that familiarity breeds liking, not contempt.
So speak to your baby a lot. Letting him hear your voice often will strengthen your bond with him.
Smell. A baby’s sense of smell is so well developed, he can find his mother’s nipple even without opening his eyes. Even if he can’t see you well yet, your baby knows you’re there because he knows your smell. Long before his eyes are of much use, your baby can begin learning about the world through his nose.
So take this chance to stimulate your child’s senses by exposing him to the different smells of his parents’ bodies, the fresh smell of newly washed laundry, even strong smells from the kitchen.
Taste. While your newborn baby cannot yet eat different kinds of food, you can stimulate his sense of taste by breastfeeding him because the taste of breastmilk varies with what his mother eats.
Sight. The sense of sight is the last to develop among the baby’s senses, so it’s best to give him strongly contrasting colors such as dark red, white, and black in his earliest days.
Because babies are so nearsighted, they can only see things around a foot away. To bond visually with your baby, you need to bring your face that close to his face, and the best way to do that is by carrying him often, or by breastfeeding, or both.
As you can see now, when it comes to bonding with our babies and giving them the best sensory stimulation possible, there is no substitute for our actually being there. There is no “parenthood by proxy.”
Aprica lets parents be there for their babies by giving them high-quality products for baby travel, such as car seats, strollers, and sling carriers.
From the car to the park to just all around the house, Aprica’s safety-engineered products help parents take advantage of this sensitive stage when their babies’ development is at its greatest and the babies form their strongest personal bonds.
Aprica products can be bought in any Baby Company stores in SM branches nationwide. To learn more about Aprica, visit www.aprica.com and join it on Facebook at ApricaPH.