Little kids are adorable when they doze off for a nap or fall asleep for the night. Babies are another story; they are truly like peaceful tiny angels. Something about their smooth and chubby cheeks, their content-filled faces, little arms wrapped around their favorite blankie/s or stretched in whichever direction they choose, or their frog-leg position. Not a care in the world, just focused on getting their rest.

One favorite thing I like to do is to hold my kids when they sleep and to sniff their face and head: I know…that’s weird! But the smell is intoxicating, sweet, and heavenly; not all the time these days, mainly after a head to toe washing. When they were babies however, I could just sniff all day and kiss their little faces and arms.

I feel a bit reassured that a scientific study backs up my seemingly odd behavior. A 2013 study by psychologists examined the effects of baby smell on women who have given birth and not given birth. Here is an excerpt from Sara Cottrell’s (2017) article discussing this phenomenon:

“In 2013, Frasnelli co-authored a study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology that looked closely at how women responded to the scent of newborn body odor. He and his colleagues recruited 30 women, including 15 who had just given birth and 15 who had never, and had them each smell the scent of an unfamiliar newborn who was less than 2 days old. The results confirmed what moms everywhere already know: Baby smell is mesmerizing. Brain scans of the participants showed that “body odors from 2 day-old newborns elicit activation in reward-related cerebral areas in women,” the study authors wrote. In fact, it didn’t appear to matter whether the subjects had previously given birth or not; the brains of women from both categories reacted to the baby smell as if it were a delicious treat, or even a drug.” https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/why-baby-heads-smell-so-good.html

I could barely find any pictures of Elliot sleeping. It’s probably because I was napping or sleeping whenever he did or too busy staring at the walls in tired dreariness. According to him however, he never sleeps or gets tired.

Thank you Nancy Merrill for hosting this fun theme photo challenge! https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/a-photo-a-week-challenge-sleeping/

Categories: photo challenge

Tagged as: Frasnelli study kids and sleeping Sara Cottrell article smell

singlikewildflowers

Welcome to my blog! My name is Esther and I'm so happy you are here. My posts revolve around the beauty of nature, homeschooling adventures, Bible reading reflections, gardening feats, and life as a daydreamer and nature observer. Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll find some interesting posts to read!