Now that baby is here
Nine attentive months of nurturing the little precious one in your womb have finally passed. The glorious bundle of joy is at last able to look into your eyes from the secure cradle of your arms. No doubt you’d be overwhelmed by a flood of emotions, as all new mothers would be, and ask… ‘where do we go from here, little love?’. Well, simply relax and let nature take its course on this. In other words, do what comes naturally, and allow you and your baby to bond minute by minute, day by day. Just enjoy your time together and begin building a deep, loving relationship. You’ll find it enormously rewarding.
Create that everlasting bond
Bonding simply refers to the deep, emotive connection you have with your baby. It is an intense attachment that makes you shower him with unwavering love and attention. Truth is, the process of bonding is a life-long journey that you take with your newborn child. One that requires plenty of nurturing. The process of bonding is like falling deeper and deeper in love, day by day.
Nature’s delights for baby’s development
An interesting and beneficial way to bond with your baby is through the tranquility and serenity of nature. This is especially so for those of us who live in the hustle and bustle of city life. An early introduction to nature can be a calming element in your baby’s early development. As you start to connect with him by triggering his five developing senses, you can start by exposing him to a variety of different things to look at and play with. In no time, your baby will begin to grasp and identify with the world around him.
Love at first sight
In the first few months, your baby sees best up to only a foot away. That’s because though baby’s sight capability is ever ready to take in what he sees, his brain is not quite ready to process all that during this stage. We have to understand that the little one’s view of things would be blurry at this point. As his little brain develops further in time, so will his ability to process visual information, eventually helping him to make sense of his environment.
You can start to introduce him to bright, contrasting colours and different shapes. Use examples from nature to inspire you – red apples, green leaves, a zebra or even a spotted lady bug. As his range of clarity grows steadily, month by month, you can also place plenty of images and colourful toys around his crib, changing area and nursery. And when you do take baby outdoors, take time to point out the bright yellow flowers growing in the garden or the beautiful butterfly flying around.
The sound of harmony
In the first 3 months you’ll notice that baby responds well to sound, like music. Introduce toys that can teach your child to listen as it will also help develop his language skills in the future. Whist you make kiddy chatter with your baby, mimic animal sounds. Let him identify with the sounds you make (“What does a cow say? Moo!”). Remember to give baby a chance to respond and imitate you! The process of sound indentification would have begun. Teach him the sounds of flowing water or falling rain. The calming sound of birds chirping or water flowing can soothe and calm not only baby but mum as well. Because baby is so young, taking him outdoors all the time may be an difficult task, so find ways to surround him with toys that allow him to be one with nature while indoors. Other fun ways to engage him would be singing him nursery rhymes that introduce sounds of nature (Old Macdonald Had A Farm), and using tools such as wind chimes or a ticking clock.
The touch of love
It is never too early to introduce your baby to the healing power of your touch. If you don’t already know, your baby is born with a fully developed sense of touch. The tactile sense is one of the immediate ways with which your child will learn about the world that surrounds him. The comfort of a mother’s touch is not just beneficial but will also teach your child to differentiate between textures. This helps develop his sense of curiosity and discovery. Use silk, for example, to teach him the meaning of ‘smooth’ in contrast to coarse linen for ‘rough’. When bathing baby, let baby feel water that’s ‘hot’ and compare to water that’s ‘cold’. On walks, further his tactile discovery by allowing him to touch ‘soft’ leaves, ‘hard’ stones, et cetera. As your baby’s world is up close and personal, he would want to experience all that he can reach with any of his five senses, particularly his sense of touch.
Taste it, smell it!
Babies have a developed sense of taste. Do you know that newborns begin life with more tastebuds than adults? Though your baby is immediately sensitive to sweet and bitter tastes, he can only detect the taste of salt as he grows older. Be assured that as baby develops, so will his sense of taste and smell. To encourage his sense of discovery, do surround him with objects and even toys that he can learn from during meal times. A tethered toy on his high chair or toys that can entertain him with music, lights and sounds will also enhance his feeding time experience. It is not a bad idea to continue to educate him as he eats, by interacting with him. For example, associate a taste with a food…(“A yellow banana is sweet! “). Let baby get a taste of a tangy orange and when his face puckers up, say ‘sour!’. Develop his sense of smell by letting him take a whiff of whatever he consumes and a variety of fragrant leaves or flowers such as the rose or jasmine.
Let nature assist
It’s never too early or too late to learn to appreciate nature. What many of us take for granted is in fact a wonderful thing to introduce to your baby. So he can explore through all his senses, bit by bit, the many delightful experiences Mother Nature has provided. Allow him enriching moments like these with you. Who knows what you’ll learn together from this journey of bonding naturally. Whatever it is, it’s sure to be a very rewarding and precious experience for both you and your child.
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