Today on our traditional Carnations Day, we strengthen our friendships by exchanging messages, chocolates, serenades and letting our friends know just how special they are.

Have a Happy Day!

Your child needs 12 hugs a day; frequent hugs can help your child to grow healthy.

Estefania Esteban (journalist)

14^th September 2017

To be hugged is more necessary than realised. Days go by and we are so absorbed by what we do that we forget our child needs a hug.

A hug, like doses of the best medicine, goes directly to the brain. How many hugs do you think a child needs? One? Two? Actually 12! We will explain why this is so.

True, one can live without being embraced; it is not essential any more than a kiss or a caress but can you imagine life without any of these?

Hugs are in fact indispensable for our mental and emotional health. Science has demonstrated that a hug liberates hormones that generate well-being.

In the words of the American psychotherapist Virginia Satir: ‘We need four hugs a day to survive; eight to keep going and twelve to grow.’

How does hugging provide emotional stability and improve the child’s mental health?

1. It fosters serenity. On contact with the skin, the receptors called Pacinian corpuscles are activated. These stimulate the vagus nerve that are connected to the brain to regulate blood pressure. In other words, just a gentle embrace is soothing and reduces stress.
2. Dopamine, ‘the feel-good chemical’, is released into the system. It also relates to memory, motivation and motor function.
3. Oxytocin, the ‘love’ hormone, is released into the system. This particular hormone, very active during labour and childbirth, plays a role in social bonding.
4. The stress hormone cortisol is reduced. The Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International of Kyoto determined that a hug produces an immediate reduction in the levels of cortisol in the blood.

What does a child feel on being hugged?  (Remember what you felt as a child and now as an adult.)

– loved

-sense of strength

-sense of security

-increased self esteem

-happiness

 

Do not forget to hug your child. It only takes a moment!