Building Strong Attachment With Your Baby

Building a strong attachment with your baby is important to their social and emotional health and development. Understanding your baby’s cues and meeting their daily needs helps to them to develop secure attachment which will positively affect their relationships for life.

Responsive care and everyday moments have a significant impact on how well your baby’s brain will develop. Parents/caregivers that provide love, attention and show interest in stimulating their little ones will build a strong bond with their baby.

Strong attachment is built through verbal and nonverbal communication. Establishing a good attachment with your baby starts with acknowledging and responding to their non-verbal cues which helps your baby to feel safe, secure and loved.

Within the first few days of life your baby picks up on your cues, your tone of voice, your emotions and how you are feeling.

Your baby will respond by crying, cooing and mimicking your facial expressions and over a few weeks will begin to smile back at you.

Throughout this process of getting to know each other, being as present as you can be is important. This will help you to observe your baby’s cries and different sounds and respond accordingly. It’s like learning a whole new language!

During this process you will be at the beginning stages of understanding and responding to their hunger cues, keeping them warm and safe. Attachment develops from meeting their basic needs and being tuned into your baby’s communication as you get to know each other.

Developing a secure bond with your baby will enhance their growth and brain development. They will build trust knowing they can rely on you. They will learn from experience that their needs will be met and this will eventually build a lifelong expectation of loving, trusting relationships.

Building a secure attachment strengthens the area of your baby’s brain that is responsible for social and emotional development. Early communication will become the foundation of your child’s ability to connect with others at school and at work.

Skills that you may take for granted as an adult such as listening, communicating, loving and showing empathy, all begin in infancy.

Babies who develop a secure attachment have an increased ability to experience satisfying relationships, explore new challenges in life and build the resilience to cope with negativity and recovery from times of disappointment and loss.

It is the most natural thing in the world to give birth and raise a child however it is one of the most difficult things we will ever do. Understanding your baby’s communication will help make your parenting journey a loving, relaxing, energy charged, joyful and wondrous experience. The initial effort required of you, loving responsive care, will result in enormous dividends!