Parenting in the First 3 Years Podcast

#22: The Power of Smell in Attachment

with Jude Stewart

Everyone knows that special newborn smell. And if you haven’t experienced it yet, you’ve no doubt heard about it. Mothers young and old can recall the smell their children had during the first few weeks of their life. It’s one of those things that sticks with you forever. But do fathers experience it the same way mothers do? And what about the babies – what role does smell play in developing an attachment to their parents?

In this episode, I talk to author Jude Stewart about the importance of smell in raising babies and toddlers. I learned how the smell of our children changes with each developmental stage, and how that affects our role as their caretakers. It’s all so fascinating!

Jude has written three books, most recently Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell (Penguin Books, 2021), along with pieces for The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Paris Review, Quartz, The Believer, Fast Company and many other publications. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram. If you’d like to read more of Jude’s writing on the science of smell, check out her article in the Wall Street Journal, What Your Smell Says About You.

Here’s a glance at this episode…