Is it wrong to kiss the child on the mouth? It is a subject that deserves some reflection and divides parents as well as health professionals. When some people see it as simply a sign of natural affection, others agree that it is an unhealthy gesture. It is "according to" and the opinions diverge both on the level of the parents and the entourage of these, as on the level of the body of the professionals of the health.
Parents have an innate and instinctive love for their child (ren) and are obviously used to showing it to them on a daily basis with affectionate words or gestures such as a kiss on their mouth. This mark of affection, totally natural for some people, is not recommended by many specialists in early childhood who apprehend a certain confusion of feelings in children and even provokes polemics as was the case with Victoria Beckham kissing on the mouth of her daughter harper .
The kiss on the mouth - What impact on the child?
"A gesture too sexual," according to American psychologist Charlotte Reznick. "When a child reaches five or six years of age and his sexual awareness develops, the kiss on his lips can stimulate him. People do not like to hear that, but the lips are an erogenous zone and the hormones of well-being associated with sexual arousal including serotonin and oxytocin are released during a kiss on the lips. She adds.
Psychoanalyst Catherine Bergeret-Amselek shares this opinion: "One should avoid kissing one's child on the mouth, even when he is a toddler, at least not taking the initiative because it gives him an excitement that is not welcome "; "From an innocent kiss to the baby one can fall into something of incest, of displaced. The child receives in this exchange of parental kiss a too strong excitement. "
The psychoanalyst Clause Halmos goes so far as to say that kissing her child on the mouth can be synonymous with sexual intercourse. "And this feeling can have serious consequences for her sexual construction as an adult," she warns.
Risks of disease transmission
Dr. Jennifer Caudle, a professor and associate American doctor in family medicine, for her part, emphasized that the kiss on the lips can harm the health of a young child or a baby by emphasizing that they have a immune system still very vulnerable to infections, hence the importance of not kissing them on the lips to minimize the risk of infection or transmission of diseases such as oral herpes.
So inappropriate gesture and heavy consequences for the evolution of the child? Risk of disease transmission? A priori, many pediatricians, psychologists and psychoanalysts are largely recalcitrant about the kiss on the mouth between parents / children.
The opinions of specialists diverge
But all health professionals do not share this view and affiliate this practice for the less common, a natural gesture of love and complicity and not a potentially harmful gesture for children.
Sally-Anne McCormack, Australian clinical psychologist and mother of four, likens kissing her children on the mouth to breastfeeding. "In my opinion, it's nothing confusing. It's a bit like breastfeeding. Some people have a problem with that and see something sexual about it. But for the parents who do it, it's a completely innocent gesture. "
Mehmet Öz, a famous American doctor with his own television show, devoted much of his subject to this thorny subject and invited several experts from different fields who publicly shared their opinion. So psychiatrist Sue Varma said, "Loving parents with their children really prepare their children for better physical and emotional mental health for life. They are 35% less likely to be obese, less likely to have heart disease, and have better brain development. "
It is quite obvious that all these arguments, at least as sensible as each other, can lead us to carry out a long reflection on the subject, but according to where we place ourselves and according to our own perception, we are entirely in right to tolerate the practice of kissing the parent to the child on the mouth, or not .
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