Biting in toddlers is a common challenge that many parents face. It leads us to question whether biting is sensory or behaviour based? As Occupational Therapists working with sensory toddlers this is something we deal with regularly. So while this can be a very emotionally overwhelming experience for parents there are reasons your child may be biting and there are tools that you can use to support him during this time.

The Sensory Side of Biting:

Some children use biting as a way to sensory sooth when their sensory system is overwhelmed. The biting provides their sensory system with a calming, deep pressure sense similar to the calming self-soothing that a pacifier or bottle gives a baby. The mouth is a particularly strong self-soothing organ and along with sucking and chewing, biting can be very effective. Even adults use the mouth to self-sooth when chewing on a pen or on gum. Some children are more sensitive than others and they will need more self regulation input than others to reach a calm state. Biting may meet the needs of sensory seeking children who need more deep pressure through their jaw, but will also help sensory sensitive children deal with multi-sensory environments which may be overwhelming for them. For a child who might be noise sensitive attending a noisy party, biting may help them to feel more grounded. Understanding the sensory reason behind a child’s biting will help you as a parent know how to best support them.

Tips to Support your Sensory Biter:

1. Deep pressure  – meet your sensory seekers need for more deep pressure, or support your sensory sensitive child’s need for self regulation. Give him lots of deep bear hugs, slow/firm arm squeezes and resting heavy hands on his shoulders.
2. Rough and tumble play – the pulling and pushing of joints during this fun type of play is sensory calming for your child.
3. Food/snack choices – meet your child’s need for biting by providing chewy, crunchy snacks. For example dried mango, biltong, apple slices, carrots, snack biscuits, rice crackers etc.
4. Water bottle – choose a water bottle that requires your little one to suck hard on or that has a chewy straw.
5. Thick liquid through thin straws – offer your child thick drinking yoghurt, custard or smoothie with a thin straw to encourage a strong sucking action.
6. Watch for sensory cues – look for subtle signs that your sensitive child is becoming overwhelmed and offer sensory strategies BEFORE she feels the need to bite. These may include: an overly quiet child becoming very loud or visa versa; a loss of colour in their cheeks or becoming overly flushed; a wide-eyed startled gaze; nose picking or finger sucking; mouthing or chewing on toys, clothes or blankets; hiccups or yawning; withdrawing from others; whining; uncharacteristic bossy or controlling behaviour.

The Behaviour Side of Biting:

If while looking at the context of your child’s behaviour there is a major life change such as a new sibling, starting a new school, parent away on a work trip, moving house, loss of a family member or pet – his biting may have more of an emotional root cause. Other behavioural reasons your toddler may be biting include teething, object exploration, attention seeking and a difficulty expressing himself. In babies and toddlers expressive language develops slower than their receptive language skills. This means that they understand more than they are able to express and this can be very frustrating for them. Although we don’t want babies to hurt others or damage objects they bite, it is necessary to remember that mouthing objects is an important developmental step in learning the spatial and temporal qualities of the world around them.

Tips to Support your Emotional Biter:

1. Be firm – set a clear boundary by using a simple, clear phrase in a firm, no-nonsense tone of voice (e.g. “no biting!” or “no hurting!”)
2. Attention on the victim – be mindful to pay more attention to the victim than the biter and ensure that there is an apology (if not verbal then a hug or a high five).
3. Provide teething relief – if your little one is teething ensure that you support her with teething toys, gum numbing solutions or cool snacks.
4. Gentle exploration – teach your baby to mouth delicate objects softly and gently. Use words in a soothing tone along with soft tactile cues to help them understand this concept. For example saying “softly” while gently rubbing their arm.
5. Tools to express wants, needs and feelings – if your little one is not yet able to verbally indicate what they need or how they feel encourage them to use non-verbal gestures or signs to avoid biting. Teach them the words they need to use by modelling this for them. For example “I see you are cross that Johnny took your toy”, “say please to Johnny”.
6. Support major life changes – while your little one is going through this transition be sure to include nurturing play into their day. This child-led time may include dress up, role play, imaginary play, puppet play, creative/art play. Allowing your child this time to express themselves how they want to can support them in processing the change. Reading books together around the topic of the life change can also help them in this time. If they are struggling to express how they feel you can label the emotions for them or use a picture chart for them to identify how they are feeling so that they can feel heard and understood. Offering simple choices for your child to make can help her to feel that she has control in some areas when she may not have control in others (for example asking her to pick from 2 snack options or giving her the choice of which T-shirt she wants to wear).

If you have tried these tips and still feel like your child’s biting may not be resolving or it is getting worse you may want to connect with an Occupational Therapist or a Play Therapist to help you navigate the next steps.

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Tips from Occupational Therapists:

1. Pick your battles – Choose one meal where you are going to try introduce a new food and where you are going to be strict on the rules around eating – usually when your little one is most hungry.  Allow one other meal time a day, which is fuss free and where no pressure is placed on your child.
2. Make this meal time social – Remember that eating is a social event. Ensure that you are sitting together at the dinner table and all eating the same meal together. Set a timer so that this meal time does not draw on for too long, we would suggest 20-30 minutes only. During this time, we encourage everybody to stay at the table and disconnect from cellphones and televisions! For this 20-30 minutes you are engaged in the mealtime as a family.
3. Set the sensory scene – Think about the sensory environment and limit or reduce sensory background input. Put the TV or radio off, limit smells (consider the food temperature – hot food has a strong smell, which can be off putting for a sensory sensitive child) and reduce visual clutter.
4. Sensory prep before and after the meal – Make sure that for about 20 minutes before the meal and for about 20-30 minutes after the meal, you are doing something sensory soothing or calming involving the proprioceptive (deep pressure sense) and the vestibular (movement sense). This could be swinging, jumping on the trampoline, going for a ride around the block on a bicycle or black bike, playing rough and tumble pillow fight games with mom/dad etc. The mouth is a very sensory soothing tool (think of a baby using their dummy!). Chewing on ice can desensitise the mouth. You can try making some juice pops in the freezer and offer your toddler one of these before dinner to chew or bite down on. If he helps make the juice pop with you, he may be more inclined to try it. Using a vibrating toothbrush before a meal time can also desensitise the mouth ahead of a meal where you are going to try a new food.
5. Use a divided plate – Don’t let the familiar and loved food that you know your toddler will eat, touch the food that is new or that you know he may not eat. Be sure that there is a food choice that he will eat on his plate.
6. Allow your toddler to choose when buying foods – At the shops, allow your toddler to choose between 2 choices of the food that you are wanting to introduce. That way if he refuses, you can say but that is the one he chose!
7. Allow your toddler to help cook – When he is in the kitchen baking and cooking, he can be exposed to whatever new and unfamiliar foods you’re cooking by seeing, touching and smelling them. So even if he doesn’t end up tasting it, at least he has been exposed to the food, which is half the battle won.
8. Ask your toddler to hep you dish your plates – When a little one dishes, invariably he messes! This can then be licked off with any luck! Try to avoid wiping or cleaning till after the meal.
9. 1 touch/smell/taste rule – Towards the end of the meal (perhaps in the last 5 minutes), implement the one touch rule. Start with an easier option e.g. touch or smell and only once he is used to the rule you can implement the taste rule. He then has to touch or smell each food item on his plate. He may need to be supported through this. He could sit on your lap and you could give him some sensory soothing deep pressure squeezes. Try to make this a firm family rule that applies to everyone! Be prepared for it to possibly end in tears. Make sure the time for this power struggle is short, perhaps just the last 5 minutes. Try to choose a new food that you are sure he will like the taste of to make the first experience of this new rule a positive one. Model this new rule for your little one by doing it first while he watches.
10. Bring food into play – Have a teddy bear’s picnic or a tea party regularly in play. Use toy pots, pans, cups, jugs etc. in play and put real food in there! Make a mess! Have water or milk in spay bottles or jugs to entice him to mix the dry textures with the wet textures. Be prepared to taste the concoction to encourage him to do the same. Again the messier the better then there is more chance of him getting it onto his fingers and perhaps even licking his fingers clean!
11. Crunchy foods – Always have “hard work” foods on the plate. The mouth can be very sensory soothing if the food has to be bitten, crunched or chewed well. So foods such as droëwors, biltong, dried mango, popcorn, crunchy carrots, apple, mango etc. are sensory soothing.
12. Have fun with presentation – Sometimes bringing in your toddler’s interests into food can help entice him to eat something. So if he loves cars and trains, then maybe presenting the food as a car or a plane may help. Pinterest has loads of ideas for this! Have fun with it and try involve your toddler in the process!
13. Try a different feeder – If the power struggle with one particular person is worse, consider having someone different handle the meal! Sometimes a certain person e.g. mom / dad is too close to the child to make a change in the eating habits. So get granny or nanny involved in the process. It may be easier!
14. Remember that this is a slow process – Move slowly and don’t try to incorporate too many changes or new foods at a time.

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As Occupational Therapists we are often asked about the link between fine motor skills and “messy play”. If you have been to one of our GAP Groups, or another baby stimulation group, you would have had loads of fun exploring messy play. As a caregiver you know it’s important to give your little one opportunities to get messy, but do you know why?

Why messy play is so important:

There are many touch receptors jammed into the small area of your baby’s hands. These receptors give information on what textures are being touched as well as what temperature the object or surface is. Your little one’s touch system will also interpret whether it’s a pleasant touch sensation or not. Most baby’s will love messy play and you will be wiping yoghurt, jelly and marmite off their hands and faces often!

Offering them a variety of consistency, texture and temperature to explore with their hands will allow their touch receptors to distinguish between mooshy, firm, warm, cold, rough and smooth textures. This will allow them to gauge how to adjust their grip when holding different objects.

As the feedback from their touch receptors improves, they will be able to isolate each finger better. The first finger they learn to isolate is usually their index finger. This will allow them to point. Following pointing, your clever baby will then learn to isolate his thumb together with his index finger. This will enable him to use a pincer grasp to pick up small objects (e.g. peas, buttons, raisins).

You may find that when he is still refining this skill, he will press his fingers together very tightly and may squeeze the object right out of his grasp or squash it!  This ability to distinguish between touch sensations and accurately gauge the force required for the grip will help him later as he needs to hold a crayon, scissors or paintbrush. There are many tasks that require finger dexterity, for example threading beads, peg games, picking up puzzle pieces, pegboard games, peeling and placing stickers. All these skills start with touch exploration. 

Tips for including messy play in your day:

1.) Join a GAP group – these weekly groups will give your little the opportunity to engage in some messy play, meet other families and avoid having to clean up in your home!

2.) Use a Nurture One Fuss Free Bib – this will help to make clean up easier. This bib washes and dries quickly and easily and protects your little one’s clothes.

3.) Get messy in the bathtub, shower or outside – this also makes clean up easier and contains the mess.

4.) Messy mealtimes – chop up finger foods to give your baby some extra practice, but make sure the pieces are not too small otherwise he will get frustrated and give up. Yoghurt, custard, apple sauce  and cottage cheese can also be fun messy touch experiences. Allow your baby to play and mess, refrain from cleaning and wiping during the activity – do this at the end.

5.) “Clean” mess – bath time is a great way to include cleaner textures. You can put coloured ice blocks into the tub, squirt shaving foam on the surface of the bath or the water, have fun with bath paints or crayons.

6.) Texture box – find a box/basket and fill it with different textures (e.g. scraps of material, sponges, spikes hair curlers, string of beads, pine cones, metal spoon/cup, feathers, make up brushes, paint rollers etc.). Allow your baby to take out the objects and explore them and you can wipe them on their hands and feet. Make sure you don’t leave your little one unattended with these objects.

To find out more about these and loads of other messy play activities, take a look at our book Groovy Adventures: How to encourage your baby to move from one developmental milestone to the next while having a blast!

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As Occupational Therapists we are often asked to advise on how to manage difficult behaviour in the classroom or at home. One of the most challenging times of development to set boundaries and manage behaviour is with toddlers. Below we offer some tips on how to discipline and set boundaries with strong willed toddlers.

Discipline tips for toddlers from the experts:

1. Tone of Voice – When reprimanding your tone of voice needs to go lower so that it is noticeably different from your happy or calm tone when your child is behaving well. Children sometimes don’t process what we are saying in a meltdown but can process tone of voice, facial expressions and non verbal body language.
2. “No Elephant Stomps Right!” – This is a silly acronym for you to remember in the middle of your little toddler’s stomping meltdown! No stands for Name the Emotion. Elephant stands for Empathise. Stomps stands for Sensory Soother and Right stands for Reassure. If a child is having a meltdown, remove them from the situation and say something like: I know you’re feeling angry, I would also feel angry if my friend took my toy, but mom is going to hold and rock you and soon-soon you will feel better. Repeat this in a calm soothing voice until your child calms.
3. Be Consistent – Consistency is key to success when it comes to setting boundaries. Your yes must be your yes and your no must be your no! This way your child will learn to trust what you say and won’t feel the need to constantly test what you say! For example, if you said that your child must say sorry before he can go and play after an incident, then stick to that.  Even if it means removing him from the situation or holding him until he decides to follow through.  If a verbal sorry is too hard, a non-verbal hug or high five sorry can suffice.
4. Closed Choices – Try not to ask open ended questions with children who often answer no. For instance “Can I take off your jersey because you’re hot?” Rather use closed choices, for instance, “Am I going to take off your jersey or are you?” If your cross little one still says no, then you can try saying, “I am going to count to 3, then I will take off your jersey because you couldn’t choose.” Make sure to follow through despite the struggle which may ensue.
5. Don’t be Scared of the Fall Out – This is a common pitfall for boundary setting. Remember that he is just a little child. You are bigger and wiser than him!  Neurologically your child’s frontal cortex is still developing, so things like judgement, reasoning and problem solving are not yet mature and so he will react with his immature fight/fright/flight brain. Be confident in your handling choices and stick to your guns. If you make a mistake, reflect upon it, discuss it with a friend or family member and endeavour to do better next time. You can always say sorry to a child if you didn’t handle a situation correctly. But in the moment – be confident with your handling choice and stick to it.
6. Don’t Allow Long Ended Negotiations – Make an executive decision if your child can’t decide. Children can get themselves and you caught in a round-and-round, never ending negotiation that goes nowhere. Offer her the independence to try sort out issues or make choices, but if she can’t, step in as the adult and make the call for her.
7. Look for Positives – Some days your child receives a lot of negative feedback from you or others for bad behaviour. On these days be extra watchful for positive behaviour and praise her very specifically. Don’t say something too general such as “you’re a good girl.” Rather say something more specific such as, “you ate your snack well and packed away your bowl beautifully.” Positive reinforcement is often more successful.

We hope these tips and handling principles help you to get discipline with toddlers right and make your family dynamic more loving and positive! Find more tips in our Groovy Adventurer parenting book here.

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To better understand how to tackle Motor Planning difficulties, we need to first look at its roots. In our Groovy Adventurers Book (https://www.jumpleapfly.co.za/groovy-adventurer-book/), we use a tree to explain development.

A tree needs firm roots in order for the trunk and branches to be strong and to bear fruit. Similarly, in development, foundational root skills need to mature before more complex trunk and branch skills can improve (which are the skills we see at home and in the classroom). Praxis or Motor Planning is a trunk skill, which is necessary for the fruit skills of task completion and work pace in the classroom. For example, a child who is sensitive to movement and feels insecure when their feet leave the floor, will not develop that inner GPS of where their body is in space and how it is moving. Without this awareness of the two sides of their body, they may not be able to use subtle postural adjustments to smoothly execute their motor plans.

Now that we know how Motor Planning develops – from Root to Fruit, we can start having fun at every level to help our children mature in this area. By starting at the root level, we can make sure they have firm foundations to build on as the demands of tasks become more complex. Let’s take a look at some ideas for activities you can do at each level:

Root Activities:
– 3 blind mice – work with your child to create an obstacle course. Try let him come up with his own ideas by asking him leading and prompting questions, e.g. “what can we do with this chair?” or “how can this table be part of this obstacle course?” Use your chairs, tables, cushions, laundry baskets etc. to create obstacles your little one can crawl under, through, over and crash onto. Let them pack out the obstacle course as independently as possible. Have them test the obstacle course out. Now use a blindfold and see if the blind mouse can find his way through the maze without his eyes helping him! He will have to rely on his sense of touch and body senses to feel his way through the obstacle course!

Trunk Activities:
Ribbon peg race – tie a length of ribbon to the top of a chair. Ask your child to sit on the floor about 30cm away from the chair and holding the other end of the ribbon. Start with 10 to 15 pegs and have a race to see how quickly he can peg the pegs onto the ribbon, by alternating attaching each peg to the opposite side of the ribbon (like zip teeth). He will need to remain seated and use both hands in order to complete the task. If the ribbon is not taut he will not be able to attach the pegs quickly. This activity requires bilateral integration (the coordinated use of two sides of the body). You can race against your child or see if he can beat his time on the next round using a stop watch.

Branch Activities:
Getting unstuck – take a trip to to the local park where there is a jungle gym. Have a long ribbon, rope or string handy. Tie one end of the string to the jungle gym and then wrap and wind it around different parts of the jungle gym – you can make it very easy with just a few twists and turns or make it more tricky with loads of tangles! Now tie the other end to your child’s waist and see if he can untangle himself! You can bring pretend play or imaginary play into it by pretending he has been captured and is freeing himself!

Fruit Activities:
Quack-Quacks – what do you call these fun cutting, folding and playing crafts? We call them Quack-Quacks and most children love making and playing with them and we love the folding, bilateral hand skills and planning needed for this task. We love these variations from the lovely ladies at the Spruce Crafts – thanks for the inspiration ladies! (https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/make-these-creative-cootie-catchers-4149965 ) More recently in our OT sessions we have enjoyed a Harry Potter Quack-Quack to figure out which house the children would be in if they attended Hogwarts! Thanks to Getawaytoday for the free printable click here to get yours: https://www.getawaytoday.com/travel-blog/harry-potter-origami-sorting-hat-free-printable

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Motor planning or praxis is the ability to come up with an idea, plan and then smoothly execute the idea as a movement. It is important to distinguish between cognitive planning (a process that happens mostly on a brain level) and motor planning (which happens on a body level). Many children are very creative and have fantastic ideas but struggle to get these ideas to translate into action. For example, cognitive planning would be making a mental list of what you may need to make supper this evening and motor planning would be used when you learn a new skill, such as learning to ride a bicycle or drive a car. As adults we don’t tend to motor plan a lot because activities have become more automatic for us. For children, however, who learn new skills every day, motor planning forms a big part of their development. 

Just as some adults learn how to drive a car easily, showing good praxis, others will take longer to learn this skill. It is the same with children. Some children will be able to run up to a jungle gym and seem to have ideas of how to navigate their way around the obstacles without thinking, others watch first and are slower to take action. Having good praxis skills as a child is not only linked to outdoor play. Children who struggle in this area also display a slower work pace in the classroom, tend to talk through tasks rather than simply executing them and watch others around them to help them get started on school tasks. All this leads to them struggling to complete tasks on time. 

Children with motor planning difficulties use more mental energy and cognitive planning to compensate for inadequate praxis skills. This can be tiring and frustrating as they try to keep up with their classmates and the pace in the classroom. Have you noticed this tendency in your home or classroom? We would love to hear your thoughts on why you think this is and what you are seeing and experiencing as parents, teachers and therapists. Watch this space next week for some tips and strategies to help your children improve this important skill.

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Sensory Integration is the ability to organise the senses your body is exposed to and to act appropriately on that information. Your little one’s amazing body has 7 senses to help him make sense of his world. He has 3 “near” senses (touch receptors, proprioceptors and vestibular receptors) which give him information about what is happening to his body and the immediate world around him. Proprioception provides input on his body’s position in space (e.g. whether his body is upright or lying down). The vestibular sense provides movement information, which is vital for balance. There are also 4 “far” senses which give him input on his environment. These include hearing, taste, smell and vision. Integration is complex. Each person’s response to sensory input results in unique behaviours. Enjoyment and functionally effective behaviour comes from the integration of ALL these senses simultaneously! What incredible assimilation your baby has to learn in time to come!

As caregivers, you will need to learn which senses are alerting and which are calming for your precious baby. Sensory input can have different effects on different babes! For instance, rocking may be calming for most babies. However, it may be alerting for some. Moreover, the physical and social aspects of his environment will influence your baby’s ability to respond appropriately. The key is to observe your baby’s behaviour on an ongoing basis, especially in new situations. Look out for signs of enjoyment and signs of sensory overload.

So how could these senses impact on breastfeeding? Let’s look at two sensory systems that could have a big influence: touch and movement. Breastfeeding is a high touch activity. If your baby craves touch and loves hugs and cuddle time, then breastfeeding is probably one of his most favourite activities!

You can increase the amount of touch stimulation he gets by:

• feeding him skin-to-skin (with his clothes off against your skin),
• holding him a little tighter (like a hug) rather than letting him lie passively in a feeding pillow,
• encouraging him to use his little hands to stroke and move on your skin or holding his hand while he feeds,
• stroking and rubbing his skin while he feeds (back, arm or leg rubs can be very calming for him).

• feeding him with his clothes on,
• swaddle him while feeding (make sure his little hands are near his face and not tucked against his body),
• allow him to lie in a feeding pillow,
• don’t stroke him or touch him with light intermittent touches, rather use firm or holding touches.

• feeding in a rocking chair, sitting on an exercise ball or while walking (a baby carrier would be useful for this),
• adding a vibrating mat under a pillow while he feeds,
• having short movement breaks in between (e.g. sitting him up and bouncing gently on your lap).

• use a feeding pillow to keep his position still,
• try feeding him while lying down on your side with him lying next to you and pillows propping him from behind to keep him in the correct position,
• feeding while he is in a wrap, carrier or sling to help him feel contained.

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Looking back, I could have saved myself a lot of time, effort and money had I known then, what I know now. I also think my family and I would have had more sleep when our baby was a little newborn “sleeper” (or insomniac!). Of course, as luck would have it, I was not blessed with a baby who had the same sensory temperament as mine – instead I got a jittery, fussy baby who seemed to become quickly overloaded by her sensory world. And all my efforts to show her love ended in loads of tears – both hers and mine!

Just as each of us has a unique personality – so too does each of us have a unique sensory temperament. Some of us love digging our toes into the sand while others shudder at the thought. Our preferences can vary from sense to sense (we can love fast, stop-starting rides at the theme park and hate loud noises) and even from day to day – some days we seem more tolerant to the shrill of our excited children than other days! It’s important to meet your newborn before deciding on what kind of nursery you will design for him/her. Looking at the goodness-of-fit between your newborn and his sensory world is the key to success!

The other thing to consider is that your baby’s sensory system is very immature and takes a while to develop and mature. So his sensory system will not handle sudden loud noises or bright lights as well as an older person’s sensory system would. A baby’s sense of smell is especially sensitive. Less is thus more for your baby.

Your baby has come from the protected and muted sensory world of the womb to a very harsh reality.

Here are some tips for helping your baby adjust:

• create a calm area for sleeping, nappy changes and dressing.
• ensure his sensory environment is a quiet one – at least initially. Respect his sleep times and try lengthen these sleep cycles. Even if it means you cannot clean while he sleeps!
• keep the temperature moderate, not too hot or too cold and use a temperature gauge to monitor this. When monitoring your baby’s body temperature, check his body temperature by feeling the back of his neck, rather than his face, hands or feet. As a tiny baby your baby’s hands and feet will not have very good circulation and can often be colder than the rest of his body. His circulation should improve after the first few weeks. He may get cold very easily at bath time, so being organised and quick will make sure that he warms up quickly.
• use gentle light – you can soften the light in the room by making sure that there is no light directly above where you are changing your baby, putting in a low voltage bulb, using a dimmer switch, a night light or blue lamp. This will also decrease the amount of light shining directly into his eyes. It may be helpful to put yourself in your baby’s “shoes” by trying to see his perspective from his nappy changing spot. Make sure that his view of the room is not too busy (e.g. lots of bright colours, pictures or toys). When he is older he will love a more stimulating view with fun mobiles and toys.
• some colours are alerting while others are calming. Bold lines and strong contrasting colours are great for learning and play time but can hamper sleep in his sleep space. Keeping neutral colours for the walls of his sleep area and bright colours for rooms where he spends his calm-alert play times of the day can help him stay in a just-right space of alertness for the task at hand.
• Use gentle detergents on his clothes and to clean his linen and baby furniture and toys. Remembering that although the smell is not too strong for you – it can be very overwhelming for your baby. Also remember to choose your spray or perfumes carefully. Choose milder perfumes and position where you spray them far away from your baby’s direct line of smell – i.e. not close to your chest where he lies his head.
• Use blackout curtains to help control bright natural light during the day.
• Use muted background noises or music to help mute stark sounds in the environment. The sound of a fan, heater or white noise CD can block out the alerting, stop-start sounds which can rouse your sensitive baby from his sleep.
• use soft fabrics which have been washed to soften them for clothes and blankets. Although mini jeans and jerseys can be cute, they can cause some babies discomfort.
• using a nesting cushion such as the one from NurtureOne (https://nurtureone.co.za) to create a soft womb-like sleep space which grounds and contains your baby.

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What do you think of when you smell LAVENDER, ROSE,  VANILLA, CINNAMON or LEMON? Perhaps we should be asking what do you feel when you smell certain scents? Unlike our other senses, information from our olfactory receptors travels straight to the emotional part of our brains. From there it gets sent to other more cognitive brain centres, but our primary response to smell is emotional. This may explain why you can smell a certain scent and think immediately of the same person or event every time you smell it. You will also have an emotion attached to some smells, for example smelling apples and cinnamon may make you think of your grandma because she always baked apple crumble for you and you may have a very loving, positive emotion attached to that smell. Unfortunately, the same is also true for negative emotions associated with certain smells. These strong emotional reactions to smell (both positive and negative) occur even before our brain has registered what the smell is (e.g. “vanilla”) because identifying the smell only happens once information has been passed on to the “cognitive” areas of the brain. So smell really can impact our (and our children’s) mood and behavior!

Understanding this link between smell and emotion, as parents we need to be mindful that our child’s response to certain smells may really be a true reaction from them, and not a willful manipulation of the situation. This is probably most evident in a child’s reaction to the smell of certain foods. Especially for a child who has a particularly sensitive sense of smell. As adults, we have a dampened sense of smell, but babies in particular have a heightened sense of smell and can therefore have a stronger reaction than what we may feel is warranted in some instances. We can help their sensitive little sensory system from becoming overwhelmed by being aware of the smells in their environment. Be aware specifically of smells that stay with your baby (e.g. perfume, baby lotion, laundry detergent). And for very young babies be aware of intense smells that stay on you (e.g. perfumes, shaving gels, hair sprays) as they spend most of their time being on or close to you. Air fresheners and scented candles can also be rather overwhelming for babies and sensitive toddlers.

As adults, we can become better at either filtering out a smell once we know what it is or even moving ourselves so that we are further away from the smell. For children who are particularly sensitive to smell it is not so easy. As babies and toddlers are too young to identify that it may be a particular smell that is making them feel overwhelmed they are not able to tell you and therefore their behaviour often changes to alert us to the fact that something is not quite right in their sensory environment. So how do we know?! Well you have to become a sensory detective and try to put the clues together! Your sensitive little one may turn and bury his face in your shoulder or his own shirt, hold his breath, try to plug his nose or simply fuss more in environments with more intense smells.
Some tips…

• Simply being aware that your little one has a more sensitive sense of smell than you do can help you to understand his behaviour as well as help him to cope better with his sensory world.
• Steer clear of “smelly” situations where possible (e.g. sit far away from the kitchen in a restaurant).
• Investigating different smells as they come up can go a long way in helping him especially if it is an unfamiliar smell. Talking about it and giving him the words he can use can enable him to alert you in future if there is a particular smell bothering him.
• Serving food cool rather than warm can help to dampen the smell for him.
• Making sure his snack box is not packed with any smells that he finds overwhelming.
• Try out washing powders that have very subtle smells and avoid wearing perfume for a time to see if these things have an impact.

If you would like to find some really fun activities to do with your little one to help them explore their sense of smell, please take a look at our book Groovy Adventurers: How to encourage your baby to move from one developmental stage to the next while having a blast!

Wishing you a happy  SPRING “Smell” DAY, and hoping you have a host of positive smell associations as you explore this amazing sense with your little people!

The post Spring Day – 1 September 2018 “Can smell really trigger emotions and affect my child’s behaviour?” appeared first on Jump Leap Fly.