Making Smarter Babies

There’s a wide continuum of what’s considered normal intelligence in humans. Some of that may be genetic, but there’s a lot of evidence that parents can have a large impact on helping their children be smarter. It all starts when they’re babies.

Pregnant women frequently choose to alter what they eat and drink in order to help their babies grow and have healthy bodies. Similarly, they can also help their babies have healthier and smarter brains.

You may have heard about parents who play classical music for their babies while they’re still in the womb and many parents read to their children before they’re born.

Studies even indicate that babies begin to hear in utero at about 18 weeks.

So what can you do if you’re an expectant parent and want to broaden tiny horizons?

One of the best things you can do for your baby even earlier is to shift your personal vibration as much as you can. When you focus on things that bring you joy, that helps uplift your spirit. Your baby can feel that vibration and will respond to it. After all, babies whose mothers experience undue stress or trauma during pregnancy will pick up on these vibrations as well.

You can’t control all the outside factors that will affect your baby, and you certainly don’t want to live your life in a bubble during gestation. Even so, you can take steps to be aware of your personal vibration and practice raising it, even if it’s just a little bit.

Raising a smarter child doesn’t stop when the baby is born, of course. The human brain develops the most during infancy and at a rapid rate. By the time your child is two years old, their brain is over half the size of an adult’s.
These rapidly growing brains aren’t just cells reproducing – they’re making neural pathways. These pathways are like circuits in a computer and the goal is to allow them to connect in as many ways as possible.

More connections result in smarter brains.

You can help create these connections with the right coaching.

The first thing you can do is provide your child with adequate nutrition. Just as muscles and bones need nutrients to grow to their full potential, so do all the brain cells and neural pathways. Breastfeeding is considered by many experts to be the best way to ensure your child receives adequate nutrition. If you’re a mother whose child is still breastfeeding, then you should be eating the right foods as well. Just as adults are told to eat good fats (omega fatty acids) for their own brain health, whatever you eat is passed directly to the baby.

Just because you can’t breastfeed or you’ve begun to wean your baby doesn’t mean that you can ignore the need for these fats. Be sure to include healthy fats in your child’s diet with foods such as avocados and salmon. Not only will you be helping their little brain develop into a big, smart brain, you’ll be helping their body be healthy and helping their taste buds get used to these important flavors.

Another tool to help develop a smart baby is to allow them to interact with their environment. Rather than leaving your child in a crib or playpen, take your baby with you whenever possible. When babies are quietly alert, they’re absorbing information.

It’s also important to talk, touch, and play with your baby. It’s a natural response and how you do these things depends on you, but all are also good ways for the child to absorb information.

The retina at the back of the eyeball is hardwired directly to the brain. What the eyes see, the brain registers. So look at your baby when you talk to them. Singing to your baby in addition to speaking can help develop the language center in the brain. If you speak another language -- even if you’re just learning it -- go ahead and speak in that language as well. It’s okay to make your face very animated when you’re talking to your child. It’ll help them stay engaged with you and connect with you.

Babies need to be touched for physical, emotional, and mental health. Whether you’re soothing an upset baby or just lovingly touching your baby, it all helps create those neural connections.

Play is another way for your baby to interact with their environment. In addition to that, allowing a child -- even a young baby -- the freedom to move can help them grow and develop smarter brains. Babies who are physically active send blood through their bodies and brains. This in turn enables the growth of additional blood vessels. More blood vessels to the brain means they’ll have more nutrients and oxygen in the brain, which are both good things.

There is no guarantee that by following these suggestions your child will be the next Albert Einstein or Mark Zuckerberg. What you’ll be doing is giving your child the best possible chance to grow into the best possible version of themselves. And what more could you possible ask for as a parent?

For more, please visit www.SharonBallantine.com.