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Body budget, mental and physical health, infant mental health and the mind-body relationship.
Everything is linked – our emotions, our bodies, and our brains….
The brain's ability to change in response to experience is highest at birth. Our responses to babies are shaping and embedding babies’ brain pathways and body systems in profound ways.
When our bodies are overflowing with positive resources (i.e. enough sleep, nutritious food, exercise), we feel pretty good, don’t we? And when our bodies are running low, we feel pretty crappy! And this all has to do with how our brain and body are wired.
Only 20% of the 100 billion brain neurons at birth have made connections, and 80% of brain neurons are still to connect. This is an excellent window of opportunity for growth and development.
Our baby's brains are wired like priority mail express to regulate our bodies. The brain receives sense data from the world and decides which of the billions of cells our body systems gets to receive oxygen, glucose and salt. Neuroscientist, psychologist and author Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett calls this a ‘body budget’.
With each repeated experience of sense data, the brain guesses using expertise. The neurons all wire together, and Dr Lisa Feldman calls this ‘bootstrapping these concepts into the brain.’ Our immune system, cardiovascular system and gut are all linked and shape our emotional state and ability to interact and be in relationship with each other. When your body becomes highly aroused, your brain stops spending and learning, which can lead to challenges in your body’s metabolism and in how you relate to each other.
Our babies’ bodies (just like our own) are continuously waiting for wiring instructions– when it is light and when it is dark, when they are being cuddled or when not, who is cuddling them, the words, the music (voice tonal qualities), the dance (body language/facial expressions). Babies are watching us all the time, taking their cues from us, and have a fundamental need for social connection.
The human touch is vital in managing a ‘body budget.’
We are social animals, and our nervous system needs regular infusions of human touch and soothing Babies are born with an immature para-sympathetic nervous system (the calm nervous system). Brain cells that get used grow and strengthen, and the ones that don’t get pruned. The more input a baby experiences of gentle handling: a sit on a lap, a cuddle, a friendly face and loving eye contact, the more a baby’s brain can send messages to their body systems of calm and safety.
Babies and all of us humans experience sense data through emotions - sensations that come up on our body as being pleasant, calm or comfortable or unpleasant, painful or uncomfortable. Sometimes we may interpret a frown or scowl on a baby’s face as them being sad or angry, but it just may be gas or a body sensation that is uncomfortable. These upsets often occur more frequently at the end of a long day and what is essential to know is that your baby’s nervous system needs human touch and gentle, friendly facial responses.
Your friendly face and voice delighting in them, just as they are, light up their brain like a Christmas tree, and is the foundation of self-esteem. Human brains are ready and wired for human experiences and connection. The more we understand the power of our words and language (our ‘music and dance’), the more we realise how we relate with each other is essential in managing our own body budgets and that of our babies.
~Robyn
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