The simple act of caressing her baby lessens her pain. Something to help families cope with the first injections and other medical examinations.
The simple act of gently stroking a baby reduces brain activity associated with painful experiences, according to a new study. This discovery could in particular help to reduce the unpleasant sensations experienced by infants before a medical intervention, or even premature babies.
“Parents intuitively stroke their babies at the optimal speed,” or about 3 centimeters of skin per second, says Rebeccah Slater, professor of pediatrics at the University of Oxford and study leader. “If we better understand the neurobiological underpinnings of techniques like infant massage, we can improve the advice we give parents on how to comfort their babies,” she says.
A soft brush just before the bite
His team measured newborns’ pain responses to blood tests by observing their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). For half of the babies, a scientist gently stroked their skin with a soft brush just before the bite. As a result, their pain-related activity was lower than that of control infants.
The expert group intends to repeat the experiment in premature babies, whose sensory pathways are still developing. “Tactile techniques, such as infant massage and skin-to-skin, are already designed to comfort infants during medical procedures,” the authors recall.
skin-to-skin
In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers have shown, for example, that premature infants who received “skin-to-skin” treatment were twice as likely to reach their 20th birthday as those who received only standard care. Moreover, in adulthood, they were less aggressive, impulsive, hyperactive or stressed than their peers, and also had larger brain volumes than others, a sign of good brain development.
A few months ago, American researchers even demonstrated that cuddling or not cuddling your newborn could modify its DNA, and this during the first six months of weaning, the term “cuddling” covering all the physical and psychological care that it is possible to bring to an infant.
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