baby

ronbyrne2005

at what age can a newborn be said to have bonded with an individual parent(say father) in sense that they perceive that parent as a distinct individual and develop an emotional bond with the person? i read that babies arent aware that they are seperate individuals to their parents for several months and cant really tell difference between people and hence bind with the person till they are several months old.

ST*

ronbyrne2005 wrote:

i read that babies arent aware that they are seperate individuals to their parents for several months

This is true. Until they are crawling and walking, they don't realise they they have any control over their world. Babies are born like blank pages. Their bodies have to go through alot of developmental milestones, and can only see a couple of inches away at first. They become familiar with peoples face shapes, hair colour etc.

Something I find is very underrated is the sense of smell. Naked skin-to-skin contact over the first couple of months is very helpful in the parent to baby bonding process. A few minutes with baby (in a warm room) just cuddling and walking around or lying alongside baby in bed with his/her head close to your skin does wonders for bonding.

I dont think you can pick an exact time as to when bonding with baby 'happens', it goes hand in hand with your efforts as a parent and their ever evolving development.

Heres a link for you, hope you find it of some use.http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/T101100.asp#T101101

greys

All it takes is time. It's true that babies are like blank pages, but they learn really quick to recognize parents. During the first few months, it's really hard to see how they react to your presence, but in lots of cases it is exactly the lack of reaction which shows you that your baby still needs time to get to know you better.

It's about smell, it's about the voice of yours, it's about some gentle moves as you play with your child - some of these things your baby pays much more attention to than you do.

A particularly good example of establishing a bond with your child was when I've noticed our baby wasn't smiling to me but was happily smiling to my wife. Naturally they two are much more connected, because they spend together the whole day while I'm at work. So it took extra effort for me to spend evenings doing just about anything together with our baby, and in just few days time our baby had so much about me that I started seeing smiles as well

Victor

When my niece was less than a week old, she was resistant when I held her in my arms, which indicates some imprinting on her mother. However after a bottle of milk she was anybodies.

ST*

Victor wrote:

When my niece was less than a week old, she was resistant when I held her in my arms, which indicates some imprinting on her mother. However after a bottle of milk she was anybodies.

It is very easy to take it the wrong way, but your last sentence hits it exactly on the spot. An infant needs are very basic, and while the beginning stages are extremely important for parents, do not forget the situations where childless parents adopt. Infants will quickly bond with those who feed you / them, and while feeding close to them, the will associate a 'personal' smell with the person feeding them. So, your worst mistake is to withdraw from the child. While parents are an extremely important part to an infants life, don't forget, you are the uncle. Congrats on being an uncle btw