On Children's Day, our thoughts instinctively turn to the love between mother and child. It is a special bond, an extremely strong, almost biological and emotional force, which equips us with all the emotional "tools" we use in adult life. Without this unconditional love we would not have survived as infants, and certainly would not have been able to live fully. We build closeness, relationships through touch. Touch is the first sense a baby develops during foetal life. Physical proximity plays a big role in the mother-child relationship: just after birth, lying on the belly, close to Mama's heart, the baby can calm down.
Cuddling or other types of touch make it easier for him to get to know his mother and other loved ones. Stroking or kissing your little one, or giving him gentle massages, is a beautiful way to show love. There are so many ways to show affection!
A deficit of proximity and sensory stimuli can have serious consequences. It leads to abnormalities in the child's social functioning, and can interfere with basic life processes such as breathing and digestion. Lack of touch can also increase the level of nervousness in an infant and lower his resistance to stress.
There is a lot of research among children brought up in orphanages saying that a person deprived of closeness and affectionate touch in infancy suffers from emotional deficits and has problems concentrating or remembering.
Touch, the hand, is a symbol of bonding, relationship building and emotional flow. Let us nurture in ourselves the power of touch also as Adult Children.
"With a baby it's like a box - it's hard to take out something you didn't put in. "*
#GiveMeYourHands
* A. Richman "The war bride".
** M. Tulli 'The hum'