What do babies’ heads smell like?

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Everyone raves about the scent of a baby’s head, but neither of my DC has a particularly distinct smell? Baby breath is very unique and sweet to me, but I don’t get the whole head-sniffing thing.

Actual hours/days old newborns smell like amniotic fluid I guess, and it's a very primal thing associated with your own baby. Young babies in general smell like a soft sweet smell.

My DD’s head smelt absolutely beautiful. Makes me emotional to think about. She smelt ‘brand new’.

My kids heads smelled like the sawdust in an hamsters cage mixed with a sweety/salt aroma. It was intoxicating. I still give them a whiff sometimes and they're now 11 and 7.

I feel exactly the same.

Kept sniffing my two as babies but ... nothing. And I have a strong sense of smell! Really felt I was being cheated. My mum said she could smell "baby smell" on them though. Agree with baby breath though, that was lovely!

I tell you what I do love about babies though, the way their heads feel so soft against your cheek.

My youngest is two and she still has that lovely, soft forehead and I love sitting with her when she naps on me and feeling it against my cheek.

My favourite times when mine were babies was holding them with their little soft heads against mine. Even if they did bloody reek of sour milk, thanks to all the reflux vomit.

Mine is four weeks and smells a bit buttery, maybe a bit salty as well. I love it and the cuddles and the hair tickling my nose, and that glowing warmth I get from the cuddles. But the breath smell is still the most incredible to me 🥰

@MegGriffinshat yes, when I wind her and she falls asleep on my chest and I can tuck her head under my chin, it’s just divine. Soft round cheeks and the tiny baby breaths 🥰

Off milk, or what I imagine is curdled cheese in the making (never smelt that btw, just imagined that it is what it would likely smell like). It’s like a fart, your own babies head is okay to you even though it’s like curdled cheese - it’s YOUR curdled cheese.

DD1 was born a month early and was covered in vernix. She had a very strong vanilla-like smell. It was beautiful. None of my other 3 DCs smelt anything like this so I've always assumed it was the vernix.

And the back of babies' necks 😍

Like a warm, buttery crumpet.

Mine smelt like my armpit mostly.. they fed all night tucked in there 😂

There's research on the volatiles emitted by children at different stages of their lives and from which parts of their body. Small babies head smells do indeed have a very special effect on parents, but especially mothers. It's beautiful :)

My daughter's head smelt like warm rich tea biscuits, my niece was more like vanilla ice cream.

Warm milk and biscuits. I think it lasts as long as they're exclusively milk fed and starts to go when they start on food. DD is 10mo now and it's gone 😢

According to anyone who cuddled her, DD had a usual baby smell. I thought she smelt grim, was quite concerned about it.

Mine never smelled of anything except for stale milk, as he had reflux.

But even in the very early days before the reflux developed, I never could smell anything at all.

Babies smell like genesis and love and warm cake fresh out of the oven. Is a smell that is unlike any others, it surpasses the olfactory organs it feels like it's filling your body. The feeling of the soft down hair brushing your lips and nose as you take a deep breath is just inexplicably divine, words can't possibly do it justice. It's like it creates a love bubble around you both, it doesn't even have to be your baby. I 100% agree with the papers that say it's primal. It is.

I couldn't begin to describe it, I can barely remember it. But I remember it being sublime and addictive. I used slings a lot because I had three close together and having one snuggled up against my chest with their head in close sniffing distance was bliss. I found stroking their heads even better though, that soft silkiness of newborn downy hair was just the best feeling.
definitely primal. The whole thing around giving birth and nurturing a baby brings out all your animal instincts that I think we suppress/ignore most of the time.

Malted milk biscuits, it was lovely.

I expect they all smell different. We used to have two cats, brother and sister, and their fur smelled completely different. One much nicer than the other. A friend's cat had a totally natural faint whiff of aftershave! Appreciate babies are not the same as cats but would imagine there's similar variation.

My DS’s smell changed as soon as I stopped breastfeeding at 3 months - he lost the delicious “baby” smell immediately.

So that might be a factor - would be interesting to know if people saying their baby didn’t smell of anything were formula feeding.

It’s a truly lovely smell, but I assumed it was just the smell of the Johnson’s baby stuff we used.

We had to switch to formula after a few weeks and my daughter kept her malted milk smell. She was on prescription formula which had a disgusting smell, but it didn't change "her" smell.

A freshly bathed baby smells of happiness 😊 🙂