Nutrition
From the time of conception, nutrition has an important role to play in brain development - as Lise Eliot, neurobiologist and author of What's Going On In There? explains…
Between four months prenatal and two years after birth, your baby's brain is highly sensitive to the quantity and quality of nutrients he consumes.
Malnourished children have smaller brains, fewer neurons and synapses, shorter dendrites and less myelin.
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Brain-building foods include protein, dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables, and vitamin-fortified milk and grains.
A deficiency in iron can cause anemia, with too few red blood cells carrying oxygen to the brain. Prolonged anemia at any time in infancy can stunt cognitive development.
Of the 45 nutrients essential for body growth, 38 are essential for neurological development.
Children reared on breast milk score up to eight points higher on IQ tests at the age of eight.