Feeling down and need a boost?  Forget drugs or alcohol.  Instead, watch your baby smile!

Most of us would know that there is something beguiling about our children smiling.  You can forgive them all the sleepless nights, rejected dinners and whinging and whining with one flash of a smile.

And now new research from the Texas Childern’s Hospital explains why.

Apparently, seeing your baby smile creates a rush of blood to the pleasure centres of your brain.  The same area of the brain that responds to drugs and alcohol.

And the bigger your baby’s smile, the greater the pleasurable affect on you.

So next time you’re covered in vomit, every toy, block or book is now on the floor rather than in the toy cupboard, and dinner has ended up on the floor rather than in your toddler’s tummy, find a way to make your children smile, and you might just smile too!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 3:51 am and is filed under Parenting, Wellbeing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.