Your young child feels good to be close to you. You pick up your baby when it cries to comfort it. All over the world, parents do the same thing, carrying and cradling their babies to their chests. Instinctively, we recognise that closeness and loving touch are positive. Measurable results from research confirm our feelings. Gentle touch produces a 'calming' hormone (oxytocin) in the body that has many measurable positive effects.
The positive effects of touch affect both you and your child. You yourself are affected for the moment. According to Professor Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg, a leading researcher in the field, touch shapes your child for the rest of their life. If your child receives a lot of touch as a baby, it affects brain development. The nervous system becomes calmer. Your child becomes less stressed and friendlier as a person.
Your child is intellectually stimulated by being carried by you and watching what you do. The sense of balance and muscles are trained thanks to the constant movement. Your child will reach the same level as the adults you meet. From the safety of your arms, it is easy for your curious child to make contact.
Parents who carry a lot have noticed that their children quickly become independent. Take your child in your arms when it needs your closeness. They'll let go as soon as they've had their fill of your security. Now they can explore the world further on their own. Children who get the closeness they need become independent sooner.
