The Power Of Caresses
No other sense like touch, and within it caresses, puts us in such direct contact with another human being. In fact, we people are pure touch: the skin encompasses our entire body. And the hand, the main seat of the tactile function, is a complex limb that definitely separates us from the other members of the animal kingdom.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the broad language of touch is one of the factors that decisively installs us in the universe of the human. It is well known that an unsupported baby is at high risk of dying.
The power of caresses
Just after the Second World War, a spontaneous case took place that caught the attention of researchers. There were two state orphanages and it was noted that in one of them the children were of better height and weight than in the other. The situation was strange, since the two institutions belonged to the same program.
When the facts were studied in depth, it was found that the difference was given by the person in charge of each one of them. While Mrs. Grun used to play and caress the children in her care, Mrs. Schwarz maintained a distant relationship with the little ones who grew up in her institution.
By chance, the two women were transferred and each ended up running the orphanage that was previously run by the other. Then what everyone thought was confirmed: children who previously had a very favorable growth rate began to lose weight and size. Meanwhile, the others grew and got fat.
The University of Miami also reported a study in which similar conclusions appear. There it was observed that premature infants stopped their development while they were in the incubators.
That is why they proposed to take them out of there for fifteen minutes, three times a day, to caress them. The result was extraordinary. In a short time they reached a normal degree of maturity and were discharged a week earlier than other children who were not caressed.
Other studies
Modern mothers often do not have enough time to spend with their babies. That is why there is a sector of researchers that is beginning to wonder if the exponential growth of violence in young people may have a direct relationship with this lack of contact between mother and child in the early stages of life.
An investigation was carried out in the UK. The study was led by Dr. Penelope Leach, and investigated the different forms of care that children under five years of age receive and their effects on development. The experts analyzed the saliva of the babies who received no response when they burst into tears.
It was then that they detected that there was a high presence of cortisol in the body of these children. Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by stress.
This substance has a highly harmful effect when it acts on a developing brain. It also alters the responsiveness of the immune system. Therefore, it was concluded that these children were more likely to get sick.
Likewise, it was found that stress is not only derived from threatening stimuli, but also occurs due to lack or tension generated by unsatisfied affective needs. This frustration could become the seed of latent or express aggressiveness.
Science then corroborates something that we all intuit in one way or another. Affective contact through touch and caresses makes us stronger and better. This does not apply only to babies, although it does preferentially to them.
But throughout our lives the need for physical caresses remains in force. They have exactly the same effect as in children.
