Holding Your Baby "Too Much" Is Not A Thing, According To Research

Oct 30, 2018 by apost team

Cuddling a baby is one of the most enjoyable things that most parents can do. It never seems like you're holding your baby enough but some people worry that they are holding their baby too much. Fortunately, a study recently showed that the more your baby gets snuggled by you, the better off they will be later in life.

When it comes to babies, how important proper touch to their development can't be emphasized enough. It's crucial to their brain development that babies be held, much more so than had previously been thought. The study that was conducted focuses on a group of 125 infants that were both premature and full-term at Nationwide Children's Hospital located in Columbus, Ohio.

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The researchers of the study wanted to look at how babies responded to gentle touching, especially when it came to premature infants. They found that these children responded less to gentle touch when compared to their peers in the study who had been carried full term. In addition, if they were even less likely to respond if they had gone through painful medical procedures.

The good news is that while they may have responded less, but overall the children who were touched more often had better outcomes than the ones who had been exposed to less. When an infant is exposed to a lot of skin-to-skin contact and other types of gentle touching like rocking, their brain development may be helped according to Dr. Nathalie Maitre, their lead researcher for the study.

Studies similar to the one performed at Nationwide with animals like rats pups and worm larvae showed results that were similar that show that touch is important to the rapidly developing brain of a baby. Preterm babies must receive proper amounts of positive touch from their parents or other caretakers. The results showed that enough touching can allow the baby's brain to respond in similar ways to touch as those who were full term at birth.

Dr. Maitre believes that hospitals need to start getting more involved in making sure that these babies are getting enough contact because of how important it is to their development. The differences that it can cause in the brain can last their entire lives and ensure them a better future.

If for some reason a parent is incapable of providing the contact that a preterm baby needs, she believes that hospitals should consider hiring physical and occupational therapists to provide gentle touching to these children. In some cases, this touch is missing from their lives in the hospital.

In Atlanta, there is a hospital that has a volunteer "ICU Grandpa" that takes time from his day to cuddle the babies that are staying there. While parents and staff try to spend as much time with these children as possible, services like the ones he provides are essential when they can't. This ICU Grandpa can be seen in a viral video that has been getting attention from viewers across the internet.

The studies have shown that there is just no way that you can spoil a baby with cuddles. Do you have a parent or grandparent in your life that just doesn't want to put their little one down? Let us know in the comments and show this article to them!

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation by your doctor. Your health is important to us!