How long did you do skin on skin for?

[HazelEagle]

As per title did you do it for the first month or continue it for longer or not etc

Longer but not consistently. It was a good way of calming her down even when she was 6+ months

She's nearly 4 and goes to sleep whilst having a cuddle and I have to take of jumpers and cardigans so she can stroke my arms as she goes to sleep. She finds touch soothing

Years. Mine is a very very cuddly child and took a long time to learn to self soothe. Still (age 6) if I wear shorts he holds my legs. Honestly he’s such a high-energy handful the affection is very welcome!

Just thinking about how to make that actually useful for a new mum - it doesn’t need to be formal ‘skin to skin’ time for it to fulfil the need for contact. It’s summer, so you’ll have bare arms mostly when holding them, maybe an open neck for a cuddle. If you’re bf that counts too. You can build it in after bath time, and you probably will do a bit of cuddling after changes. Mostly, skin contact is just a natural part of the intimacy of looking after a baby.

At least 4-5 months. He then went through a stage of wanting to have his hand on my chest/neck to fall asleep to or to calm down as ell.

We currently breastfeed so does that count? And often contact naps too (but don’t think that’s skin on skin as clothed etc)

What do you mean 'does it count'? No-body is scoring you or giving or deducting parenting points.

You should do what works for your family. What other people did or didn't do isn't really relevant and you shouldn't feel like you have to compare, or that there's a right way to do it.

Sorry that sounded harsher that I meant it to!

I just mean that you're going to have so so many decisions and and stuff to deal with as a parent, just trust yourself.

It wasn't really a thing when my babies were born. But they were put on my chest after birth... That was kind of it tbh!!

Apart from that no formal skin to skin per se. Just lots of cuddles. I often bathed with them, so that would count I suppose.

I've never really designated time for skin-on-skin, with the exception of just after birth at the hospital.

We get plenty of natural skin-on-skin time through napping (usually on me!), breastfeeding etc.

What fresh hell is this?! You’re supposed to be naked when cuddling your baby now? What for?!

"Fresh hell"?

You don't need to stretch your imagination that far to figure out why it's pleasant for parent and baby. Babies and young children love the feel of their parents' bare skin. That's why toddlers are forever stroking every bit of flesh they can reach, sticking hands down your top, stroking up and down your arms, touching your stomach, or twiddling with your ears etc.

You don't need to be completely starkers but it's comforting for a baby to lie of the e of their mother or father. Is it totally necessary? No. Is it nice for babies and parents if they want to do it? Very much so.

OP, my toddler is nearly 3 and we've done a lot of skin to skin because that's just the kind of family we are and we're unbothered by nakedness. It's not something I put much thought into personally, we just do it naturally.

That's why toddlers are forever stroking every bit of flesh they can reach, sticking hands down your top, stroking up and down your arms, touching your stomach, or twiddling with your ears etc

Just no.... Never.
I am very, very, close to my two daughters, and we have no issues with nakedness, but poking, touching and stroking, just generally fiddling gives me the heebie jeebies. Just personal space please, thank you.

I used to think that skin to skin meant stripping baby down to their nappy and putting them on my bare chest. I didn't do that very much, to be honest.

But I breastfed my first child for 15 months, my second child for 18 months and counting, and my first child makes me roll my sleeves up when I put him to bed so he can touch my forearms.

Well, I don't like getting poked and prodded either and there are certain things I tell my toddler "I don't like that" and he stops. But he's not yet 3 and if we're cuddling it's natural for him to stroke my arm or put a little hand behind my head to play with my hair. He's tiny, he doesn't just lie stock still in my arms.

But my overall point is that it's natural for young children to want to touch and feel their parents' bare skin and to have the same done in return. We're animals and rubbing a child's bare back, stroking their hair, or a child stroking their mum's hair, fiddling with an ear etc etc is comforting and bonding like grooming is in other animals.