Social Smiling – Interact with Your Baby

Babies smile in response to smiles and also prompt smiles in others. In the first two months your baby can focus on your face best when in your arms from a distance of 8-12 inches. In everyday interactions it is still your lively face that continues to capture his attention. Observe how your baby’s expressive communication cues are expanding. Social Smiling is one of the interactive expressions of a budding two-month-old baby.

Your baby’s face-to-face interactions are really whole-body experiences. When babies and parents gaze and smile at each other they respond with their whole body.

When we smile: our breathing deepens, our bodies relax, widen and lengthen.

When we frown: our breathing becomes shallow, we tense up and our bodies narrow and shorten.

When your baby sees your animated face: observe how your baby responds from head to toe, with a little body wriggle, open hands and a beaming face — just for you!