Lack of cuddles in infancy may affect development of brain

Interesting stuff that confirms prior research on brain development in infants. And in light of the thread on James Dobson and other KKKristian parenting experts, relevant to American society at present.



Depriving young children of cuddles and attention subtly changes how their brains develop and in later life can leave them anxious and poor at forming relationships, according to a study published today. Love and affection from parents and carers are vital to developing brain pathways associated with handling stress and forming social bonds, the researchers found.

Seth Pollak, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, and colleagues compared the progress of children being raised by their biological parents in America with children who had come from crowded orphanages in Russia and Romania and had been adopted by American parents.

"When these children were babies there were so few adults around that there was rarely one available to respond to their needs," said Dr Pollak.

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Before and after this physical contact, the children provided a urine sample to measure levels of two hormones: vasopressin, thought to help us recognise familiar individuals and live in social groups; and oxytocin, the release of which makes us feel secure and protected, and lowers our stress level.

Children from orphanages had lower baseline levels of vasopressin and, unlike children raised by their biological parents, their levels of oxytocin did not rise with cuddling. The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1647932,00.html?gusrc=rss

not that I'm complaining.

Really, how can anyone not want to?

to "spoil" a baby by picking him up and soothing too often. It's amazing we have to counter these ideas with common sense research.

Cultures that advocate "baby wearing" as routine practice are obviously onto something. Our society's obsession with instilling independence at the youngest possible age can be taken to illogical extremes, and at the detriment of our children.

is hardly ever put down. She doesn't cry unless she IS put down. My daughter wears her in a sling a lot, or just holds her. After work I help with this terrible burden.

Yeah, right. It's the most wonderful time in the world to me, to feel that little warm body breathing.

Right now she only likes females to hold her, probably the softness of the chest and our higher voices.

Every time I hear it. My mother says it all the time in reference to my 10-month-old niece, talking about how spoiled she is because she *gasp* likes to be held. She also talks jokingly about what a bad baby she is because she gets upset when her dad leaves her in the living room on the other side of the baby gate while he putters in the kitchen (his place is so incredibly small she's in sight the whole time).

She does the same thing to my brother, little picks meant as "jokes," which is a central reason why he has the self-esteem of a gnat and has never been able to move forward on his own. (The fact that my father hates him and a whole lotta untreated depression being the others.)

If Mom keeps up with that stuff on my niece, I may have to get batshit on her. I won't have her do to my niece what she continues to do to my brother.

other work that shows similar links between responsive caregiving and physiological processes associated with stress responses.

Lots of "unbonded child" problems for too many for the rest of their lives. Very sad.

the positive impact of touch/massage on improving outcomes for preterm infants. We've come a long way in preemie care, thank goodness.

known to also cause such results- such as prenatal exposure to toxics
which many regions of Russia have.

There is also more to it than cuddles; such kids in orphanages get less stimulation to interesting things and learning, etc. which can also be a factor in such. also less socialization, etc.

No way from the study to suggest cuddles was the main factor.