touch

There are many studies that demonstrate the importance of touch in the development of a healthy mind and body. The two studies - that go quite far back now - that come to mind now and again involve primates - monkeys and humans. One was a lab study from the 1960s that now would be considered unethical, but attracted quite a bit of attention at the time it was reported. The researchers separated monkeys from their mothers after birth. They constructed a cylindrical object about the size of a mother using wire and attached bottles of formula as needed. The infants learned to feed from the wire mother. The researchers also constructed another wire frame, but this time with no food. The wire was covered with thick soft fabric. When frightened, the researchers discovered baby monkeys did not seek out the source of food. Instead they would race to the cloth 'mother' and cling tightly to it.

The other studies followed an increase in deaths from a syndrome known as 'failure to thrive'. These were studies conducted in hospitals that were concerned about babies - such as those born prematurely or those awaiting adoption - who seemed to have no serious physical problems, but didn't respond to treatments and didn't take to feeding.  The failure to thrive syndrome became such a concern, that it was studied closely.

It seems that after WWII, medical services became more programmed and regulated. Babies were to be fed by the clock rather than according to their show of hunger - that kind of thing. Babies were not to be handled too much because of fear of germs. The influenza epidemics - such as that around 1918 - and the polio epidemic peaking in the 1950s - had changed the emphasis from hands-on treatments to sterile procedures. Fear of germs had increased tremendously.

The failure to thrive studies looked at babies who, with the cautious practices of the era, were handled very little. The studies also recorded data on babies treated more like infants at home before the new science of infant care. The studies discovered that babies who were held while fed and cuddled close to a caregiver's body several times a day had a much greater rate of thriving and surviving than those infants that were handled the new way, as little as possible.

The importance of touch - to horses, cats, dogs, whales, et cetera - to old and young - has long since been documented and acknowledged. Many interpret these kinds of findings as demonstrations of the innate nature of love, and that love is integral to life on this planet.