The Power of Physical Touch

I’ve heard stories through the years of how important physical touch can be to the healthy development of children – how infants in orphanages would literally die for lack of human interaction and how premature babies in developing countries would flourish without the help of modern medicine because they rested on their mother’s chest rather than in an incubator. I’ve heard these stories, but throughout my infant son’s 2-month stay in the hospital I have been given tangible proof that physical touch is crucial to his development.

The first week of Grayson’s life was so tenuous that Cathy and I were not allowed to hold him in any way. We were even cautioned not to speak loudly enough for him to hear as it was likely to agitate him and cause his vital signs to drop. And, as with many newborn babies whether premature or not, he limped along and lost about 10% of his body weight in those first 7 days. But then the doctors allowed Cathy to hold him on her chest about 3 hours a day. And we began to see a rapid improvement in his growth. In that first day of sleeping on his mommy’s chest, listening to her heartbeat, feeling the warmth of her skin against his and being rocked by the gentle rise and fall of her breathing, he put on a full ounce. That may not seem like much until you consider that at 2lb. 11oz., one ounce was over 2% of his body mass. It was also the first weight he had gained outside of the womb. And that was just the beginning. Over the course of that first week, as he daily rested on either his mommy’s or my chest, he not only regained all of the weight he’d lost in the first 7 days of life, but added several ounces more. His breathing ability also took a quantum leap forward during that time.

Now, I recognized the interesting connection between Grayson’s weight gain and the daily dose of physical touch, but I initially wrote it off as coincidental. After all, all newborns lose weight at first and then gain it back. But then two weeks ago Cathy and I got sick at the same time and we were forced to find out what would happen to Grayson when he wasn’t being held by us every day.

When Cathy came down with a cold I took over the daily cuddle time at the NICU. But then, a few days later, I also started to exhibit symptoms and I was forced to stay away as well. At first Grayson didn’t seem to be greatly affected. He gained an ounce each of the first two nights, which was still forward progress even though he had been putting on an average of 2 ounces a day the week before. However, as the week progressed and Cathy and I weren’t getting better, his progress stalled completely. Over the next three days, Grayson stopped gaining weight altogether. In fact, a couple nights he actually lost a little weight. 


To put it in perspective, whereas the week before he had put on a full pound (16 oz.) over seven days, but during the six days that he didn’t get his daily dose of cuddle time he added only 3 total ounces (that’s a 75% drop in daily weight gain). At first we were concerned that he might have caught our cold from us, but as he didn’t show any other symptoms, it became increasingly obvious that wasn’t the explanation.

On Saturday, Cathy was finally healthy enough to go hold Gray, and we saw an immediate effect. Whereas over the week we couldn't see him in the hospital he had averaged a mere ½ ounce of growth a day, he gained a full 2 ounces that first night, and last night he gained another 2 ounces.

I can no longer deny that my son’s progress is affected by the amount of physical touch that he gets, especially from his parents. Throughout last week, as Cathy and I were forced to stay home the nurses tried to provide some TLC, but as they had other responsibilities they couldn’t lay there and hold him on their chest for 3 solid hours. Besides, Grayson can recognize Cathy and my smell, the pace of our heartbeats, the cadence of our breathing and the sound of our voices.  He knows when we are there and I’m convinced that he needs the connection from his parents to flourish.

As of this morning Grayson is 5lbs. 13 oz., nearly double his birth weight. He is also breathing on his own and eating on his own rather than being fed through a tube. The doctors are suggesting that Grayson might come home this week. I hope that’s the case because I’d like to hold my son a lot more than once a day!