A new study reveals “maternal kissing” doesn’t heal a child’s minor injury, the National Institutes of Health finds.
The revelation, published Tuesday, comes after 943 maternal-toddler pairs were studied in Ottawa, Canada.
The study was a “Randomized, controlled and double-blinded study of children with experimentally induced minor injuries,” according to NIH.
“Control arms included both no intervention group and ‘sham’ (non-maternal) kissing. Children were blinded to the identity of the kisser in both the maternal and sham control groups.”
Children were asked to judge their level of discomfort on a 1-5 range, pre- and post-injury, on a scale dubbed the Toddler Discomfort Index (TDI).
The study found kids reported “significantly higher” TDIs scores five minutes after a kiss as compared to receiving no kiss.
“Maternal kissing of boo-boos confers no benefit on children with minor traumatic injuries compared to both no intervention and sham kissing,” according to NIH.
“In fact, children in the maternal kissing group were significantly more distressed at 5 minutes than were children in the no intervention group. The practice of maternal kissing of boo-boos is not supported by the evidence and we recommend a moratorium on the practice,” the federal agency says.
The government didn’t reveal how much it paid to conduct the study.
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