12/27/07
Baby IQ 1
Researchers have learned considerably about baby's brains develop. Indeed, parents who are interested in raising geniuses can now do this by applying what's been learned. And America (and the world, for that matter) could sure use a genius generation to bring us better government, arts, business leaders, engineers, and scientists.
But, wouldn't most parents want to do everything they could to have the best children they could? Actually, it calls for a considerable commitment. You see, the fate of the baby, and then child, teenager, man or woman, they're bringing into the world starts being determined before conception with how healthy the sperm and ovum are. How healthy the parents are. I'll go into more detail on that sometime.
The birth process is very traumatic for the baby, so this is a time for quiet. No talking. Then the baby should be put with the mother. This is a time of intense learning. The baby's brain and nervous system have to learn how to make the body work and to make sense of what the eyes are seeing, the ears hearing, the fingers feeling, the mouth tasting. And that takes a lot of learning. To help build the brain synapses the parents should read to the baby, sing to it, talk to it, and play music, preferably classical and some country. No TV or radio, please!
The baby is going to sleep a lot. Make sure the room is dark and quiet. This is when the baby's brain is busy sorting things out, building memories.
Carry the baby around. Babies who are carried learn to walk earlier than those who aren't. And breast feed the baby for as long as possible. This helps build the baby's immune system and can make a serious IQ difference over bottle feeding. Some 12 to 15 IQ points!
Give the baby lots of contact. Touching, massaging, stroking. Massaging helps the baby relax, improves digestion, helps the baby sleep better, and helps brain growth. There are books and videos to help parents learn baby massaging.
When the baby cries, hop to it and solve the problem. This helps build the baby's trust in you.
As the baby grows, teach it with love, not punishment. Animal trainers learned about that decades ago. No more whips and chairs for lion tamers. They sleep with them. A University of New Hampshire study proved a strong correlation between teenage suicide and childhood spanking. It's tough on a parent that gets angry at the child not to spank it to "show it a lesson." If you do I can tell you from personal experience that your child will never really forgive you. Always use love to teach.
There's lots more to tell.