Your baby's sense of touch
Touch is your baby's first sense to develop, starting around 7 weeks of pregnancy. Once your baby's born, touch plays a key role in their bonding process with you as you feed, cuddle, and bathe them. Touch is also an important way to soothe and calm your baby – they thrive on skin-to-skin contact with you. You can help your baby develop their sense of touch by encouraging them to play with and grasp toys and objects with different textures and shapes.
Your baby is born with highly sensitive skin. Some of the areas of their body that are particularly sensitive to touch include their mouth, cheeks, face, hands, abdomen, and the soles of their feet.
For a newborn baby, skin-to-skin contact is a vital part of bonding and communication. They're comforted by the feel of you touching their skin. They're also able to respond to touch with their grasping reflex.
If you stroke the palm of your baby's hand, they'll curl their fingers around yours and grip them. Likewise, if you put an object in the palm of their hand, they can grip it. Most infant reflexes disappear as your baby gets older.
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