ELi5 Why we don’t remember our first four years since birth?

Question

ELi5 Why we don’t remember our first four years since birth?

In: 3

Answer 1

I’ve always had pretty clear memories from an early age. Now I’ve got a toddler who’s nearly 3 and it’s hard to explain but I’ll watch him doing something and get these kind of flashbacks to doing the same thing. Like the way he might scoot around the bath tub or just experiment with the world and what he can do in it. Very fun and unexpected experience of being a dad!
Those memories he brings up aren’t in my head the way later memories are though. It’s more like the feeling of what he’s doing. Kind of like a smell? How it can bring back vivid memories without really having anything intellectual attached to it

Answer 2

I’ve always had pretty clear memories from an early age. Now I’ve got a toddler who’s nearly 3 and it’s hard to explain but I’ll watch him doing something and get these kind of flashbacks to doing the same thing. Like the way he might scoot around the bath tub or just experiment with the world and what he can do in it. Very fun and unexpected experience of being a dad!
Those memories he brings up aren’t in my head the way later memories are though. It’s more like the feeling of what he’s doing. Kind of like a smell? How it can bring back vivid memories without really having anything intellectual attached to it