How much a baby is touched leaves measurable effects on DNA methylation (2017)

Post by earthboundkid » Mon, Dec 09, 2019, 3:44 AM UTC

carbocation wrote: post #22

mindfulhack wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a professional scientist, but shouldn't the spirit of science be curiosity and exploration at all times, not shooting down a new idea as soon as you hear it? If such an attitude were present in every person, science would not progress at all. I'm not that long a veteran here, but I think at HN we are more interested in having our minds and ears open and feeling we can comfortably share and discuss articles th…

I think that science works best if we marry two mindsets: the joy of seeing something novel, and the suspicion of seeing something too good to be true. They don’t have to be present in equal measure for every article, and while I wouldn’t word it the same way as the parent, I appreciate the healthy skepticism on this topic.

Post by insickness » Mon, Dec 09, 2019, 3:49 AM UTC

glofish wrote: post #3

I think there is a high chance that is 100% bullshit. Most likely has to do with confusing cause-and-effect. It could be just as well that highly methylated babies cry more and could be more demanding or parents with highly methylated babies are themselves less tolerant to crying thus end up handling babies more. The problem, they way it is being reported, and they way it lines up with pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo g…

Post by tomrod » Mon, Dec 09, 2019, 4:10 AM UTC

aidenn0 wrote: post #36

tomrod wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I follow the causality argument here. A twin study should normalize everything genetically. Ergo epigenetic expression and environment are the only two causal levers. It sounds like you're arguing that parental involvement has a causal impact, which is the point of the studies to a degree. Perhaps my original question was unclear: is there something the twins do or have done to them that cause a latent s…

We are questioning how much the parenting has an affect on the child. The parents are self-selected and so are more likely to be similar to each other.

Post by lngnmn1 » Mon, Dec 09, 2019, 4:19 AM UTC

Post by m0zg » Mon, Dec 09, 2019, 4:38 AM UTC

jbuzbee wrote: post #47

samstave wrote: post #2

Hmm... I have three children - and all are intelligent, beautiful well adjusted kids. 5, 7, and 15. One thing I made a point of as each was born - I maintained as much physica contact with each immediately after birth. I didnt allow them to leave or be examined without me there, touching them. I did it not for the posted reasons, but just beacuse it felt right to me. ALso - I would hum and sing to them a tune while t…

Here's another magical experience. No one will believe it, but it's true, so here goes. We too would read, sing and hum to my son in-womb. While doing so, we'd occasionally hear a loud click, the source of which we couldn't determine. But after he was born, we found out. He would press his tongue hard against the roof of his mouth then release it with a suction "pop". Was he trying to communicate back to us from the…