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.
• 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.

On to the next important ingredient – repetition…