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Sweet Sensations: Plan a Nursery to Nurture Baby's Senses
Get your little ones off to a good start in a nursery that stimulates awareness of their world
Janet Dunn
5 October 2016
Houzz Australia Contributor. Former NZ House&Garden writer and stylist, and avid interior design enthusiast. Ex-restaurateur and caterer, with a Professional Certificate in Gastronomy, University of Adelaide.
Houzz Australia Contributor. Former NZ House&Garden writer and stylist, and avid... More
Baby’s first years on Planet Earth are the years of discovery. Babies are like blank sheets of paper, waiting to be written on, and what is written there is largely shaped by their early experiences. Every waking moment, new and interesting encounters with their environment broaden their sensory realm. Make baby’s first home a delightful and intriguing place, where natural curiosity blossoms and they can discover a brand new world.
It’s a small world
“Babies are like little bundles of hope. Like the future in a basket,” says author Lish McBride. They are pocket-sized explorers, constantly scouting their new-found domain. At first, their world is tiny, just the space where they sleep, eat, feed and make funny noises. While they seem to be doing nothing much – except the usual input-output activities – they are learning at an incredibly rapid rate as they figure out how the world works. And you can help to guide them through this wonderland of sights, sounds, touch, taste and smell with a sensational nursery.
“Babies are like little bundles of hope. Like the future in a basket,” says author Lish McBride. They are pocket-sized explorers, constantly scouting their new-found domain. At first, their world is tiny, just the space where they sleep, eat, feed and make funny noises. While they seem to be doing nothing much – except the usual input-output activities – they are learning at an incredibly rapid rate as they figure out how the world works. And you can help to guide them through this wonderland of sights, sounds, touch, taste and smell with a sensational nursery.
What baby sees
According to vision experts, babies are born with limited colour recognition, only able to distinguish the black and white spectrum, and then only fuzzily. By three to four months, they begin to perceive colours and depth, and visual sense is mature by around seven months.
A helping hand: A pale, one-colour scheme lacks definition and makes depth perception difficult. That doesn’t mean you can’t go for pretty pastels, but provide some contrast colours on walls, toys, rugs, bedding and decorative items. Wide, contrasting stripes are more than just pretty – they assist in providing stimulus for colour recognition. As your little one spends lots of time looking up, decorate the ceiling with some fascinating decals or painted details.
According to vision experts, babies are born with limited colour recognition, only able to distinguish the black and white spectrum, and then only fuzzily. By three to four months, they begin to perceive colours and depth, and visual sense is mature by around seven months.
A helping hand: A pale, one-colour scheme lacks definition and makes depth perception difficult. That doesn’t mean you can’t go for pretty pastels, but provide some contrast colours on walls, toys, rugs, bedding and decorative items. Wide, contrasting stripes are more than just pretty – they assist in providing stimulus for colour recognition. As your little one spends lots of time looking up, decorate the ceiling with some fascinating decals or painted details.
Initially, babies can focus only around 30 to 40 centimetres from their face. After a month or so, it’s about a metre and they begin to track movement. Help this skill along by hanging a moving object like a baby mobile within this range. Mobiles with angular blocks in a variety of contrasting colours like this are ideal and are a good distractor hung over a change table.
Tummy time – placing baby tummy-down on the floor for short, supervised periods – can start early and helps build different muscles to those used when just lying flat. Some babies object at first, so make it fun with some age-appropriate, colourful toys within visual range. A rug or blanket with a distinctive graphic pattern makes this exercise more interesting.
Create an ever-changing Wall of Wonder. An entire pegboard wall holds a cornucopia of visual delights, from artwork, colourful toys, books and boots to messages of love. Just the thing for baby’s eyes to wander over as he or she stares at the wall wondering whether to summon attention from the staff.
Light is also part of baby’s early visual experience. At first, a soothing, dark room conducive to sleep is a priority and this means subdued, controllable indirect lighting in a warm, not blue, spectrum, and light-excluding blinds or curtains. In a madly exciting new world, babies need rest to recover from the stimulation they are getting. As they develop a sleep pattern that responds to day/night cues, allow in more natural light.
Tip: As you notice baby focusing on and reacting to more of their surroundings, reposition the cot or bassinet occasionally to acquaint him with different angles and objects.
Soothing nurseries for a sound night’s sleep
Tip: As you notice baby focusing on and reacting to more of their surroundings, reposition the cot or bassinet occasionally to acquaint him with different angles and objects.
Soothing nurseries for a sound night’s sleep
What baby feels
Baby skin is ultra sensitive and babies soon begin their tactile exploration. Feeling and touching begins to create mental images of objects they handle.
A helping hand: Widen their world by introducing them to different textures, shapes and temperatures. Have a variety of tactile objects on hand in the nursery – toys with soft fur, velvet, smooth satin, corduroy, bumpy woolly blankets and mats, as well as harder shiny items too. Start with gentle skin rubs with different materials, and then let some supervised exploration begin.
Baby skin is ultra sensitive and babies soon begin their tactile exploration. Feeling and touching begins to create mental images of objects they handle.
A helping hand: Widen their world by introducing them to different textures, shapes and temperatures. Have a variety of tactile objects on hand in the nursery – toys with soft fur, velvet, smooth satin, corduroy, bumpy woolly blankets and mats, as well as harder shiny items too. Start with gentle skin rubs with different materials, and then let some supervised exploration begin.
Developing touch sensations involves not just hands and skin, but mouths, which is why a lot of gumming and sucking of anything within reach goes on in the early months. This is healthy curiosity using all the tools at baby’s disposal, and a normal hygiene routine should deal with this rather damp and drooly phase. It’s an important one for baby to begin learning hand-eye coordination.
What baby smells
Babies are born with excellent senses of smell. Smell is more powerfully acute at birth than any other time, and it helps babies learn about their environment and identify comfort and discomfort. Among the first smells experienced out of the womb, Mum’s skin aroma is baby’s favourite.
A helping hand: Don’t drown out your natural milky ‘mummy’ smell with highly scented products. Hang some of your clothing, like nightgowns, in the nursery – baby will recognise their familiar smell.
Babies are born with excellent senses of smell. Smell is more powerfully acute at birth than any other time, and it helps babies learn about their environment and identify comfort and discomfort. Among the first smells experienced out of the womb, Mum’s skin aroma is baby’s favourite.
A helping hand: Don’t drown out your natural milky ‘mummy’ smell with highly scented products. Hang some of your clothing, like nightgowns, in the nursery – baby will recognise their familiar smell.
As baby develops, introduce mild natural aromas to broaden smell sensations – a massage with sweet almond oil, or wafts of lavender, jasmine or neroli essential oils in a diffuser are soothing and pleasant. Reed diffusers emit quite low levels of fragrance, and some are specifically for nurseries – I even saw one labelled ‘Warm Milk’! Research baby shops, and keep strong cleaning materials out of the room – those ultra-sensitive noses won’t react well to chemical smells.
With their magnificent olfactory sense, babies seem oddly immune to the odours they produce themselves. But as you’re not, you’ll no doubt become aware of some whiffy issues from nappies and milky clothes and bedding. All sorts of solutions are available for dealing with the nappy situation, from scented nappy bags to sealed nappy bins and sanitary nappy disposal systems. Enough said.
16 nursery essentials to tick off your list
16 nursery essentials to tick off your list
What baby tastes
Closely allied with the sense of smell, taste is also amazingly sensitive at birth, with baby’s tongue containing many more tastebuds than yours. So interlinked are these two senses, that babies’ olfactory experiences affect their early food preferences. Exploring objects in their vicinity inevitably leads to many of them ending up being chomped on, so ensure objects within reach are safe and clean and don’t taste unpleasant.
Closely allied with the sense of smell, taste is also amazingly sensitive at birth, with baby’s tongue containing many more tastebuds than yours. So interlinked are these two senses, that babies’ olfactory experiences affect their early food preferences. Exploring objects in their vicinity inevitably leads to many of them ending up being chomped on, so ensure objects within reach are safe and clean and don’t taste unpleasant.
What baby hears
Yes, those little wonders pop out with their ears flapping, ready to absorb all the sounds around them from day one. At about two months, they’ll start attempting to imitate what they hear, even if it just emerges as a cute little cooing sound.
A helping hand: Reading is one of the best things you can do for a baby’s sensory development. Although they won’t care if it’s War and Peace or Where is the Green Sheep?, the combination of your voice and the rhythm of reading is incredibly interesting. Keep a basket of books handy to your chair.
Yes, those little wonders pop out with their ears flapping, ready to absorb all the sounds around them from day one. At about two months, they’ll start attempting to imitate what they hear, even if it just emerges as a cute little cooing sound.
A helping hand: Reading is one of the best things you can do for a baby’s sensory development. Although they won’t care if it’s War and Peace or Where is the Green Sheep?, the combination of your voice and the rhythm of reading is incredibly interesting. Keep a basket of books handy to your chair.
The sound of your voice is a chart-topping hit for a newborn. It’s all part of the comfort of familiarity so important in the first formative months. Night vigils for wakeful little souls might be the time for a lullaby or two from Mum, so treat yourself to the most comfortable nursery chair around, complete with good back, foot and arm support. You could even make a recording of your voice humming, speaking or singing to turn on during restless nights.
Music is the food of love so feed baby lots of sweet songs. As he or she grows, you can increase auditory stimulation to include music – it’s been proven that babies got rhythm! Put a music player in the room and introduce a range of instrumental and vocal sounds to enrich baby’s hearing world.
Sudden, unfamiliar noises are startling for such sensitive ears. Put measures in place to keep the nursery as immune as possible to loud outside noise, either from the rest of the house or outside it – try sound-absorbing rugs, wool or felt wall-hangings and artwork. You don’t want a completely silent environment, but ensure nursery sounds are soothing and low volume.
Read more stories about spaces for little ones
Read more stories about spaces for little ones
Toys that make noise pique curiosity. Look for soft, safe toys that crinkle, rustle, rattle, squeak, giggle, moo, woof or make music. Play with them together and then let baby explore how to handle them to generate the sounds. Mimicking the toy noises stimulates baby’s own speech development.
TELL US
Does your home have a brand new arrival? How have you organised your nursery space? Share with us in the Comments section.
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Browse more bedrooms for babies and kids
TELL US
Does your home have a brand new arrival? How have you organised your nursery space? Share with us in the Comments section.
MORE
Browse more bedrooms for babies and kids
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