Why your Baby Loves You!

Here are 5 things you do that win your baby's heart.

Your voice and smell are wonderful.

Babies seem to recognize their mother instantly. "I've seen it so many times," says Laura Riley, MD, obstetrician and author of You and Your Baby: Pregnancy (Meredith). "The baby has just been born, his vision is not great, but the moment the mother starts to talk in a soothing voice, the baby will turn toward her or open his eyes." That's because he could hear Mom's voice from the womb. Baby listens to you talking for weeks before he's born. Further proof that you're special: a newborn may turn his head away from a stranger because of the unfamiliar voice and scent. "If I pick a baby up and cuddle him in the same way as the mother, I don't get the same response," Dr. Riley says.

You provide the food.

Whether it comes from the breast or the bottle, the milk you feed your baby offers much more than nutrition. When he's screaming from hunger, he actually doesn't know what's wrong. You magically make it all better. With every meal, you're telling him that you'll take care of him. As he learns that lesson, things get easier for both of you.

She adores your face.

Newborns don't do much, but they eat. At meals, their eyes seek a little entertainment, and the main dinner attraction is Mom or Dad. "One of the first objects a baby will focus on is a face," says Zwelling, who is also a member of the Pampers Parenting Institute.Baby drinks you in along with milk, and she falls in love with what she sees.

You talk to her.

By the time your baby is old enough to start responding, you've said thousands of words to her. You've narrated diaper changes and meals and trips to the store. Through you, she's learning the language of her world. "Their ability to comprehend is vastly larger than their ability to express themselves," says Jamie Loehr, MD, pediatrician

You love her -- and she knows it!

Whether it's blowing raspberries on a delicious tummy, flying the airplane spoon full of food into a waiting mouth, or cuddling and comforting at bedtime, every single day you do things that convey to your baby that you're smitten. You love her, and she knows it with every particle of her being. Of course she loves you back!