Touch especially is a powerful nutrient for your baby’s development – it is the first sense to develop, just days after conception and is important for a whole lifetime; it stimulates growth hormones as well as hormones that relieve stress and those that encourage bonding and attachment. By consciously spending just a few minutes each day massaging with gentle firm pressure, you can help your baby become calmer and happier. As well as releasing endorphins, those ‘feel good’ hormones that help us all relieve stress, massaging your baby will reduce stress hormones such as cortisol; and this can also have positive effects on brain development. There is increasing evidence that high levels of stress hormones are toxic to infant brains and may have lasting effects on your child’s response to stressful experiences. Other studies show that babies with lower levels of cortisol(a stress hormone) in their blood do better at mental and motor ability tests.