Bonding is the intense attachment that develops between parents and their baby. It makes parents want to shower their baby with love and affection, to protect and nourish him. Bonding gets parents up in the middle of the night to feed their hungry baby and makes them attentive to their baby's catalog of assorted cries.

Scientists are still learning a lot about bonding. They know that the strong ties between parents and their child provide the baby's first model for intimate relationships and foster a sense of security and positive self-esteem. Parents' responsiveness to an infant's signals is important for the child's social and cognitive development.

Why Is Bonding Important?
Bonding is important for a baby. Studies of newborn monkeys who were given mannequin mothers at birth showed that, despite the efforts of the baby monkeys to get a response through holding and touching the mannequins, the lack of a parental response caused stunted development, sadness, and failure to thrive in the young monkeys. Scientists suspect that lack of bonding in human babies causes similar problems.

Most infants are ready to bond immediately. Parents, on the other hand, may have a mixture of feelings about it. Many parents feel an intense attachment within the first minutes or days after their baby's birth. For others - especially if the baby is adopted or has been placed in intensive care - it may take a bit longer.

"The sooner it happens, the better," says Jennifer Shrager, MD, a pediatrician. "But it is possible to make up for lost weeks or even months."

For many parents, bonding is a byproduct of everyday caregiving. You may not even know it's happening until you observe your baby's first smile and suddenly realize that you're filled with love and joy.