Mmm....Baby Smell.....Mmmm....

A couple of weeks ago Linda, Kai, and I went to our Kaiser pre-natal group reunion.  We all swapped birth stories, tales of figuring out parenting as we go along, and of course adored each other's children.  At one point Linda and I were chatting with one of the nurses and I mentioned how the entire house smells like baby.  "I mean everything!  And it's not just diaper smell, or breast milk, it's something else entirely that I just cannot describe."  The nurse enthusiastically agreed and seemed able to recall her own experience of the wonder of baby smell.  
Later, Linda mentioned to me how she never really noticed a baby smell, which left us both with an inconclusive "Huh."


I have continued to think about the phenomenon of baby smell, especially because I cannot escape it!  It's just so wonderful!  To try and describe it, it's sweet and musty and rich and when I hold Kai and press his soft and squishy chest to my face I get the nearly irresistible urge to devour him!
I've thought, "Perhaps it's pheromones or something," but every time I got on the computer I forgot about my baby smell wonderings (I think perhaps because the computer dulls my senses.  I am not kidding).  
Well, finally I remembered and lo and behold it has been researched!  A Swedish study headed by Professor Bill Hansson tested to see whether there in fact was a newborn smell and, if so, what its effect was on others.  Marina Green at TLC magazine summarizes, and their conclusions are fascinating!

The results of their experiments showed that men were better at distinguishing T-shirts that had been worn by newborns, and fathers were more likely than non- fathers to speculate correctly. The women had trouble distinguishing the scent of a newborn child from an older child but they all agreed that clean, unworn shirts smelt “most pleasant”.

Amazingly, none of the women could detect this baby smell--only the men, especially (but not exclusively) fathers.  This comes as a surprise for a few reasons: 1.  Women are generally found to have a stronger sense of smell.  2.  Our cultural assumptions around gender and bonding.  3.  A previous study by Karin Bengston at Hebrew University in Jerusalem had found that mothers could identify their babies by smell.
Here is Bengston's take on the research:

"Women have always had to be more concerned with the job of looking after their children than men and display protective motherly instincts in their presence. These feelings toward the child were never as natural coming from the father because he was primarily concerned with the hunt for food. A successful hunter was better off adopting an aggressive stance. Back at the homely campfire this peculiarity could prove dangerous for the youngest and most defenceless members of the clan, especially under less than ideal conditions."...According to this theory, men sniff out the information on baby aroma that is common to all small children but women focus more on the factors that distinguish their own child from other children.

I cannot say I have been aggressively hunting as of late.  Even when I am "bringing home the bacon" it has been from working with children--though children who apparently have largely lost their newborn smell (not until puberty will they produce their own "mature" smell--won't that be nice!).  Nevertheless, I must say that walking in that door after running errands or doing some work at school, I am immediately hit by a thick wall of baby's sweet sweet aroma, and most everything that was hanging onto me melts away.
To speak of the bond (whether assisted by pheromones or not) between Kai and I, one of my favorite moments is when I finish changing his diaper and he just lays there on the changing table, arms over his head, a serene look on his face, and his eyes on mine.  Right then, it is so clear just how much we are attached.  We both know that I am going to pick him up and love him until the end of time.  All his eyes seem to ask is, "Where to now daddy?"  And away we go.