Rwanda
At just five weeks of pregnancy, your baby has developed all their senses. “They can recognize mom and dad’s voices while still in the womb and their taste buds can distinguish between sweet and sour flavors,” says Dr. Joseph Haddad, Professor of Pediatrics and Neonatology in the Ivory Coast. “But sweet is by far their preferred taste, and this preference remains during the first few months after birth.” Your baby will use their senses right from day one. Especially in the beginning, they particularly rely on their sense of taste and smell, but they also use hearing and touch to explore the world. Sight is the last sense to develop.
Let’s take a closer look at the typical development of each sense.
If babies could talk about smell, they might say “Mum smells the best,” or, perhaps more accurately, “Mum smells the most familiar.” Babies know their mothers’ scent even when they’re still in the belly, and when they are born their sense of smell is already well developed. “Smelling helps them orient themselves during their first few days,” according to Dr. Haddad. As soon as they are laid at their mother’s chest, they feel safe and secure. But their own smell also reassures them. In the first few days after birth, the scent of the amniotic fluid in which the child spent about 40 weeks still lingers on their body. For this reason, experts often recommend not washing a newborn immediately after birth.
In addition to the mother’s scent, the child will also quickly memorize their father’s - or other close caregivers’ - scent. “To help your child memorize these scents, avoid using perfumes or other scented products such as shower gels, and have lots of direct physical contact with them,” advises Dr. Haddad. It’s helpful for the breasts in particular to smell “like mum,” since they are what feeds and calms the child. Therefore, if possible, only wash yourself with water or unscented shower gel in the first few weeks.
You will also notice how quickly you get accustomed to your baby’s scent. Mothers are able to recognize their children by scent alone in the first few months.
Studies have shown that as early as 20 weeks of pregnancy your child will start physically responding to sounds. “As a mom you will certainly feel those reactions during pregnancy when tiny feet and fists touch the inside of your belly,” explains the pediatrician. “Loud noises can startle your baby and soft sounds will encourage them to listen.” A baby can also hear their mother’s heartbeat, breathing and voice.
In the womb, a developing baby will hear mostly higher pitched sounds at first. It will take a few weeks more for them to properly hear deeper sounds, such as their father’s voice. But once they can hear those sounds, they will remember them. Even while in the womb, babies enjoy the sound of classical music and calm, harmonic melodies. “Try using a musical toy or a comforter that also plays music,” suggests Dr. Haddad “Lay it on your belly and relax. Your child will recognize the melody when they are out of the womb and will remember how calm and relaxed they felt when hearing it from inside.” In the first few days after birth, hearing will be one of the key ways your child orients themselves, alongside touch.
By the third trimester, your baby will be drinking up to 40 milliliters of amniotic fluid per hour. This fluid generally tastes sweet, but it can become more sour, bitter, or salty, depending on what mom eats. The taste of course also changes if the baby peed shortly before. Right from birth, your child will prefer sweet tastes, which is why they like breastmilk so much. From about three months old, they start discovering the world by putting toys, textiles, and basically everything they can grab into their mouth. Their taste buds will be very well developed by now, and they will tend to reject anything salty or unfamiliar.
“Start providing complementary foods from around five or six months, and when you do, give your child time to get used to the new tastes,” says Dr. Haddad. “They might reject a new meal the first time and maybe the second time as well, but by the third time they might be more open to it.”
Experts recommend offering a new flavor up to eight times. If your child still rejects the food after that, it probably doesn’t taste good - at least not to them. Even though we as parents would prefer our children not to be fussy eaters, they have their own minds when it comes to food and their preferences might not match your desired meal plan.
When we talk about the sense of touch, we generally mean a combination of three types of sensory perceptions: the tactile system (what you would normally think of as touch), kinesthetic perception (which allows you to perceive your body’s movement through space), and the sense of balance (vestibular system). The sense of touch is the first sense to develop. Your baby will start to feel touch through their skin at around five weeks of pregnancy. From week-13 on, they will be able to perceive their own body through actions such as sucking their thumb or playing with the umbilical cord. They won’t be bored in any case! “Your baby will also start developing their kinesthetic system before they are born. They will feel what it is like to tense their muscles. How it feels to move their limbs,” describes the expert. “The progress of the sense of balance is closely linked to the development of the sense of hearing and it is almost completed within the womb.”
As soon as a newborn comes into the world, they use their mouth, and especially their lips to explore it. This habit continues for a while. A baby will be around two years old before their tactile system is comparable with that of an adult. Nevertheless, they need lots of physical contact so they can perceive their mum and dad. Take every opportunity to touch your baby, whether you are feeding them or changing their nappy. Try stroking their bare tummy or their arms and legs with a feather. Give them the opportunity to sense their own body.
Unlike hearing, sight develops quite slowly. “For example, by the third trimester, your baby can already open their eyes and differentiate between light and dark in your womb,” says Dr. Haddad. “However, their sight will not be completely developed until around their first birthday.” One reason for this is that the brain needs time to process the visual signals it receives to differentiate colors and, above all, to follow movements. For the first few months, you should get up close to your baby and stay near them because they can best focus their eyes from around 20 centimeters. Staying close also gives them the opportunity to touch you and combine the information from various senses. They can then perceive your voice and see your hair and face.
Your baby also loves the colors red and yellow, as well as dark and light contrasts. At around six months, they will start to develop depth perception and will be able to assess whether they can reach out and grasp an object or not. From eight months onwards, they will look around to find out what happened to objects that you make “disappear.” At around 12 months, sight is fully developed. When your child has routine annual check-ups, you will have the opportunity to discuss with a healthcare professional whether their development is progressing normally.
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