Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum Here, it's difficult to describe the scent of
Speaker 1: a recently born human baby, but if you've ever held one,
Speaker 1: you know exactly what we're talking about. You may have
Speaker 1: even snuggled their head in close and taken a good huff.
Speaker 1: It's not even baby shampoo or lotion or diapers. It's
Speaker 1: a little sweet, maybe milky, a tiny bit musky, and
Speaker 1: then one day it's just gone, often without anyone even
Speaker 1: realizing that it had been fading. So what exactly is
Speaker 1: that new baby smell? This is one of those questions
Speaker 1: that no one really knows the answer to. We've talked
Speaker 1: before in the show about old people smell. It's not unpleasant,
Speaker 1: but researchers have identified a particular grassy, musty scent compound
Speaker 1: emitted by skin that we produce more of as we age,
Speaker 1: especially after seventy five years or so, and people can
Speaker 1: easily identify older people by that scent. Again, no one
Speaker 1: is really sure what the biological reason is for this,
Speaker 1: but the theory goes that a smell related to a
Speaker 1: certain age group may be an evolutionary relic designed to
Speaker 1: help animals choose their mates, with the idea that long
Speaker 1: term survivors would be worth reproducing with, and that new
Speaker 1: baby smell might also serve some kind of evolutionary biological purpose,
Speaker 1: for example, to help a mother identify her baby more easily,
Speaker 1: similar to how babies can identify their mothers by smell
Speaker 1: almost immediately. Several studies have shown that most mothers can
Speaker 1: identify their babies by smell alone. It may also help
Speaker 1: parents bond with their baby. A twenty thirteen study from
Speaker 1: Frontiers in Psychology found that when women were given an
Speaker 1: undershirt with a baby sent on it, not their own
Speaker 1: baby scent, just any old baby scent, their brains reward
Speaker 1: center lit up. This was true whether or not the
Speaker 1: women were mothers themselves, and a two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: study of Marnoset monkeys showed that monkey fathers who smelled
Speaker 1: their newborns showed a drop in testosterone, which could make them,
Speaker 1: to quote the study, more tolerant toward his infants while
Speaker 1: facing external challenges that might distract him from focusing on
Speaker 1: his infant and family needs. What we do know is
Speaker 1: that new baby smell is complex, far more than a
Speaker 1: single compound. Researchers with the Monel Taste and Smell Center
Speaker 1: think it's made up of about two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: chemicals in combination. That's why it's so difficult to pin down.
Speaker 1: It's everything from their diet of breast, milk or formula,
Speaker 1: which are really complex in themselves, to residues of the
Speaker 1: amniotic fluid that they've been living in a tube specialized
Speaker 1: harmless bacteria that live and grow in their guts and
Speaker 1: on their skin. Since there are still so many questions
Speaker 1: about what this scent is and why it exists, recreating
Speaker 1: it is pretty unlikely, at least for now, So if
Speaker 1: you enjoy new baby smell, you're just going to have
Speaker 1: to get it at the source, with the sources parents permission,
Speaker 1: of course. Today's episode is based on the article what
Speaker 1: causes new baby Smell on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by
Speaker 1: Katherine Whitburn and Flive Copeland. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio in partnership with howstufforks dot Com and is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit
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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.