You read it here first
Drudge is linking to a story today in LiveScience about how mothers prefer the smell of their own baby's poop. Why this is a surprise to them, I'm not sure. I told you about this back in March, as part of my post on my recent Defecation Education.The story reports that...
In a new study, 13 mothers were asked to sniff soiled diapers belonging to both their own child and others from an unrelated baby. The women consistently ranked the smell of their own child's feces as less revolting than that of other babies.
This effect persisted even when the diapers were purposely mislabeled.
One possible explanation is that the mothers were simply more accustomed to their their baby's stink and therefore found it less repulsive. A more intriguing possibility, the researchers say, is that the mothers' reactions are an evolutionary adaptation allowing them to overcome their natural disgust so that they can properly care for their babies.
But, that is no surprise, at least to me. I wrote a much less scientific article that came to the same conclusion (among others) and it cost nothing but experience:
I mentioned it briefly above, but the smell of baby poop also deserves in-depth study. As vile as it smells, it can become almost absent to those who smell it frequently, like the parents. You get used to the smell. You can still smell it, of course, but for some reason you begin to grow accustomed to it, even finding the smell comforting. I have developed a theory that it is this nature of parents to grow accustomed to the stench of their children's shit that led to the popular vernacular saying "your shit don't stink." Because to some, it doesn't.The entire post is worth your time, if only for laughs.
There you go. Villains Vanquished: Scooping the Crap Scientists on All Kinds of Shit. Hey, maybe we aught to change our tagline to that! Hmm...Phin may already be using it.
No matter, we endeavor to keep our public informed, even if the highlight of our topical repertoire is baby poop.
