The Amazing Benefits of Hugging your Children

When's the last time you gave your child a hug?

Hugs are amazing for a child's emotional development. It helps with developing secure attachments. As parents, we all want our children to succeed in life. Love and affection can help melt away stress and anxiety and lead them to a very successful future.

Hugging your child can improve self esteem and avoid behaviour problems. Think about how good you feel when you receive a warm hug. When you feel upset or down, a hug can sometimes make it all go away. When we are happy, we want to give the people we care about lots of hugs to show them how we feel and to express our love. Intuitively, we know hugs are great, we can also sense when someone might need one.

Here are some of the benefits of hugging your child:

When we hug our children, it releases the love hormone, oxytocin.

This feel-good hormone has many positive affects on our bodies. It has been proven to reduce anxiety and release cortisol. It starts as early as when a baby is born. Skin to skin contact is a soothing method for mother and baby. The practice calms and regulates the babies heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. It's great for breast milk and helps your let down flow more easily and this in turn, boosts your babies immune system and helps protect against illnesses.

Hugging your child helps them to regulate their emotions.

At birth, a child's nervous system is not mature enough to regulate emotions by itself. Experts say that children can begin to self regulate around the age of 3. Hugging a child who is experiencing stress, not only regulates them, but allows them to experience their emotions being regulated. This very crucial experience teaches children HOW to self regulate.

When children don't know how to self regulate, this can lead to anxiety, depression, shame, substance abuse and more. We want our children to learn how to self regulate because it will assist them in key social and emotional milestones in their lives.

Hugging and cuddling improves the bond between you and your child.

We hold our babies as soon as they come into our lives. We hug them, cuddle them, hold them and rock them to sleep. As they get older, the bond continues to change and evolve. The hugs may not happen as often and the cuddles may not last as long but nothing can take away from the bond that has been created between the parent and child. Hugging improves trust, alleviates fear and strengthens connections.

Hugging can strengthen your immune system!

Hugging increases the production of white blood cells in your body which strengthens your immune system. The gentle pressure on the sternum and the emotional charge this creates, activates the solar plexus chakra . This stimulates the thymes gland, which regulates and balances the body's production of white blood cells. This is why holding and cuddling your children, especially when they are sick, helps them to feel better.

Next time you hug your child, with permission of course, remember all of it's incredible benefits!