What Causes 'New Baby Smell'?

That sweet-milky-musky scent that newborn babies have is a combination of hundreds of compounds. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/family/parenting/parenting-tips/recreate-new-baby-scent.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogelbaum Here, it's difficult to describe the scent of
a recently born human baby, but if you've ever held one,
you know exactly what we're talking about. You may have
even snuggled their head in close and taken a good huff.

(00:24):
It's not even baby shampoo or lotion or diapers. It's
a little sweet, maybe milky, a tiny bit musky, and
then one day it's just gone, often without anyone even
realizing that it had been fading. So what exactly is
that new baby smell? This is one of those questions

(00:48):
that no one really knows the answer to. We've talked
before in the show about old people smell. It's not unpleasant,
but researchers have identified a particular grassy, musty scent compound
emitted by skin that we produce more of as we age,
especially after seventy five years or so, and people can
easily identify older people by that scent. Again, no one

(01:11):
is really sure what the biological reason is for this,
but the theory goes that a smell related to a
certain age group may be an evolutionary relic designed to
help animals choose their mates, with the idea that long
term survivors would be worth reproducing with, and that new
baby smell might also serve some kind of evolutionary biological purpose,

(01:34):
for example, to help a mother identify her baby more easily,
similar to how babies can identify their mothers by smell
almost immediately. Several studies have shown that most mothers can
identify their babies by smell alone. It may also help
parents bond with their baby. A twenty thirteen study from

(01:54):
Frontiers in Psychology found that when women were given an
undershirt with a baby sent on it, not their own
baby scent, just any old baby scent, their brains reward
center lit up. This was true whether or not the
women were mothers themselves, and a two thousand and eight
study of Marnoset monkeys showed that monkey fathers who smelled

(02:15):
their newborns showed a drop in testosterone, which could make them,
to quote the study, more tolerant toward his infants while
facing external challenges that might distract him from focusing on
his infant and family needs. What we do know is
that new baby smell is complex, far more than a
single compound. Researchers with the Monel Taste and Smell Center

(02:39):
think it's made up of about two hundred and fifty
chemicals in combination. That's why it's so difficult to pin down.
It's everything from their diet of breast, milk or formula,
which are really complex in themselves, to residues of the
amniotic fluid that they've been living in a tube specialized
harmless bacteria that live and grow in their guts and

(03:00):
on their skin. Since there are still so many questions
about what this scent is and why it exists, recreating
it is pretty unlikely, at least for now, So if
you enjoy new baby smell, you're just going to have
to get it at the source, with the sources parents permission,
of course. Today's episode is based on the article what

(03:26):
causes new baby Smell on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by
Katherine Whitburn and Flive Copeland. Brain Stuff is production of
iHeartRadio in partnership with howstufforks dot Com and is produced
by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit
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