Touch is very important, but affection involves more than this. Singing and talking to the baby, even when it is very small, is part of building the development of the child’s emotional security.

“He will retain this emotional register as something good, comforting, even if he won’t remember the song or if he doesn’t speak yet. The opposite is also true: fighting in front of a very young baby will affect him”, says Anna Chiesa, a nurse with a doctorate from USP, and a master’s degree in public health.

The actress Paula Liberati, mother of Raul, aged a little over 1 year, has always touched him and talked to him. She always heard her father say that the most important thing for a child is touching it and showing it affection.

"From the time he was born, I would say: ‘Look, now you are going to sleep, everything is going to be fine. Now I am going to change your nappy: can you see, I’m going to open it. Look at your little leg. I’m going to put some ointment on, you will feel a little cold.’ I always started from the principle that he understands”, she says.

Paula recalls that in the baby’s first week, she put the baby’s crib in her bedroom. Raul started sleeping well very early on, so she decided to move him to his own room.

"He did not want to stay in his room, so I gave him a pillow with my smell on it and talked to him. I said: ‘I am going to put you in the crib I have prepared for you. Here you are going to be safe, and mummy will be right beside you in the room next door. If you need anything, just call me and I’ll be here’. And he stayed there! I have never left my son crying, because I made a deal with him: ‘You can relax and sleep, and if you need me, I’ll be there at your side. Just call me and I’ll come’. So, I always respond to him. I just won’t leave him crying. I don’t agree with that”, says Paula.