Surely many of you will have seen the movie "Her parents", in which Robert de Niro stars in the role of a grandfather who tries to prevent Ben Stiller ("Gay Lo Follen") from paying too much attention or even holding his arms grandson, who spends long hours in the crib, even when he is awake.
“Don't take it, we're fermenting it“Is the phrase that tells you, alluding to the fact that they are using the Ferber method (very similar to the one here called the Estivill method), in that they avoid giving much contact to get the child to become independent.
The fact is that, as we have commented on many other occasions (a few days ago, for example, with the interview of Carlos González), most of society is still convinced that babies and children, to grow and develop properly, They must get used to living with little contact and few arms.
Interestingly, at the same time that different voices repeat again and again that "we don't give them too many arms" there are those who say (sometimes they are even the same) that massages are very beneficial for babies. Given this "and what are we?", I comment a study conducted with premature babies that concludes that contact with babies is essential for their growth and development.
The study in question dates from 1984. Yes, I know, it is more than 25 years old and we still have to fight to show parents, grandparents, health professionals, psychologists and psychiatrists, advocates of minor and the participants of the debate programs that Young children need contact and touch to grow and develop healthily and that love, by itself, does not create socially incapable beings, much less.
A quarter of a century and we still have to talk about the benefits of massages and how necessary it is for babies to live close, very close, to their mother. What are we going to do, if we have to keep talking about it, we will continue to do it (I personally am just one more who has joined the car, so I still have a lot of energy to continue with it for 25 more years, at least).
What did the study consist of
Entering the study, this is an investigation carried out with 20 premature newborns whose gestational age was 31 weeks, who had an average birth weight of 1,280 grams and who had an average time in the intensive care unit of 20 days.
These babies were given various scales and measurements, assessing the growth, behavior during sleep and wakefulness, and the performance of the Brazelton scale (which assesses the quality of the child's response to certain stimuli and determines, at from the result, the amount of stimulation you need).
To all of them a “treatment” was applied based basically on giving them a massage. The massage consisted of caressing the babies' bodies and making passive movements of their limbs in three sessions a day, lasting 15 minutes, for 10 days.
The results were compared with 20 other babies of similar characteristics who had not received such massages.
The results of the study
All results confirmed that babies need contact to grow and develop. Babies who had received stimulation gained 47% more weight than those in the control group (average of 25 grams per day vs 17 grams), were more active, were more alert and more oriented during waking periods, showed a better motor response, better maturation and achieved a better score on the Brazelton scale.
In addition to everything mentioned, these babies were admitted 6 days less than the other group, generating savings to the health system of about $ 3,000 per child.
Conclusion
Well, I don't think you have to comment on anything that isn't obvious. The human being is sociable by nature (that's why we live in societies) and demonstrates warmth and love through the use of contact and caresses.
Babies develop better and grow more stable and with greater self-esteem in a warm and loving climate than in a hostile and distant environment. As the best way to create a climate where love and affection abounds is through contact, caresses and whispers (among many other things), it is logical to conclude that The more contact, the better growth and development a baby will have, especially if it is in the first days, weeks and months, which is when they are the most immature and therefore when they need it most.
