Breast-fed infants respond to olfactory cues from their own mother and unfamiliar lactating females

Porter, Richard H.; Makin, Jennifer W.; Davis, Linda B.; Christensen, Katherine

doi:10.1016/0163-6383(92)90008-t

Cited by 56 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Overall, 49.3% of mothers felt negatively about the use of a pacifier by their own child, 24.6% felt that pacifier use was acceptable, and 26.1% felt positively about pacifier use. In comparison, 11.6% of mothers felt negatively about the use of soft objects by their own child, 21.7% felt that the use of a soft object was acceptable, and 66.6% felt positively about soft object use.…”

Section: Parental Comfort With Objects and Infants' Object Usementioning

confidence: 94%

“…Given a choice between a pad scented with an unfamiliar mother's breast milk and a pad scented with their own mother's breast milk, even very young infants will orient toward their own mother's scent. 21 Nonhuman mammalian studies also support the importance of maternal olfactory cues in early neonatal orienting and settling behavior. 22 It is likely, then, that an object that smells like the mother may be an attractive sleep aid to an infant.…”

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confidence: 91%

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Use of Sleep Aids During the First Year of Life

et al. 2002

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Objective.-In an attempt to foster self-soothing during the night, a novel sleep aid infused with maternal odor was introduced to 4 groups of infants ranging in age from 3 to 12 months. Infants' use of parent-provided sleep aids also was examined.Methodology.-Nighttime sleep and waking behaviors were videotaped for 2 consecutive nights on 3 occasions over a 3-month interval. Using all-night video recording, the study examined the infant's use of a novel sleep aid and parent-provided sleep aids during sleep onset and after nighttime awakenings.Results.-Results indicated that infants of different ages differed in the types of sleep aids used when falling asleep either at the beginning of the night or after awakenings in the middle of the night. More 3-month-olds used their thumbs/fingers/hands, whereas more 6-month-olds used soft objects. The 6-month-olds were most likely to use the novel sleep aid. Almost all of the infants at all 4 ages used some type of object during the night. Intra-individual analyses showed that infants tended to change their pattern of sleep aid use over the 3-month study period.Conclusions.-The data provide evidence that infants during the first year of life use sleep aids frequently and interchangeably rather than a specific favorite object.Parents of infants and young children regularly consult their pediatricians about how to get their child to fall asleep at the beginning of the night or how to get their child back to sleep after a middle-of-the-night awakening. Prevalence rates for these types of sleep disturbances have been reported to be as high as 20% to 30% for 1-and 2-year-olds.

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Section: Parental Comfort With Objects and Infants' Object Usementioning

confidence: 94%

mentioning

confidence: 91%

Use of Sleep Aids During the First Year of Life

et al. 2002

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“…Mother-infant skin-to-skin contact after delivery facilitates early recognition of the mother's odour (13,14), and human infants who have had more skin-to-skin contact with their mothers are more able to detect and recognise odour cues from the breast, neck and axillae of their mother than from unfamiliar women (1,15). In fact, it is not just maternal odours emanating from the breast region that are attractive to breastfed infants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Two-day-old newborn infants recognise their mother by her axillary odour

2015

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“…Infants are preferentially attracted to the breast or axillary odor of their mother as versus unfamiliar females within days of birth (Schaal ; Porter et al. ). Note that the prior examples could be considered instances of odor‐based individual recognition, rather than examples of kin recognition per se , but at the ultimate level both yield the same fitness benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives: Hamilton's Legacy: Mechanisms of Kin Recognition in Humans

Mateo

2015

Ethology

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The behavior literature is replete with examples of individuals exhibiting costly acts that benefit someone else. These examples troubled Darwin so much so that he thought they would be fatal to his theory of natural selection. A century later, W. D. Hamilton refined that theory by showing, quantitatively, that such acts could be favored if the individuals involved were relatives. His theory of inclusive fitness is generally considered one of the greatest theoretical advances in evolution since Darwin's time. Less appreciated from Hamilton's 1964 paper is the hypothesis that mechanisms favoring accurate kin recognition will also be selected. Here, I review those recognition mechanisms and survey the literature on human kin recognition. Although not often considered, humans both produce cues to kinship that vary with genetic relatedness and have perceptual abilities to detect these cues in others and assess that relatedness. The potential functions of these abilities are discussed. Importantly, gaps in our understanding of the development and use of recognition mechanisms are noted.

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Breast-fed infants respond to olfactory cues from their own mother and unfamiliar lactating females

Cited by 56 publications

References 15 publications

Use of Sleep Aids During the First Year of Life

Use of Sleep Aids During the First Year of Life

Two-day-old newborn infants recognise their mother by her axillary odour

Perspectives: Hamilton's Legacy: Mechanisms of Kin Recognition in Humans

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