What parents need to know about building a brainy baby?

What’s the best way to boost your baby’s brain power?Here’s what the latest research says:

Max out cuddle time Terrie E. Inder, M.D., a neonatalneurologist at Washington University in St. Louis,studied premature babies and the amount of negativestress they incurred (mostly due to medical procedureslike shots, changing of feeding tubes, etc.). Babies withthe highest number of stressors showed the most negativechanges in frontal and temporal lobes, the portionsof the brain associated with emotional stability, planningand language. Holding and soothing a baby, though,mitigated some of the effects of stress. “The less stressand the more soothing, positive experiences—the morea parent can hold and comfort a baby—the better for thebaby’s brain development,” says Inder.

Breastfeed A Danish study published in the Journalof the American Medical Association in 2002 found thatIQ measured some 15-plus years after breastfeedingceased was strongly correlated with the duration ofbreastfeeding: The biggest gains in IQ were seen whenbabies were breastfed for up to 9 months. “We knowit’s best for brain development to breastfeed a babyexclusively for the first four to six months. After that,it’s age-appropriate foods plus breast milk until age1,” says Michael Georgieff, M.D., professor of pediatricsand a neonatal nutrition researcher at the Universityof Minnesota in Minneapolis. The second best thingto breast milk, though, may be formula with DHA andcholine. Both of these nutrients are important for braindevelopment, says Georgieff. More studies are needed,however, to understand if this addition to formula providesany long-term benefits.

Focus on the relationship A crucial foundationof intelligence is the relationship an infant has withthe people around him, says Amy Hunter, L.I.C.S.W.,assistant professor at Georgetown University Centerfor Child and Human Development in Washington, D.C.If your baby babbles or blinks at you, do it back. You’reencouraging trust, confidence and communication. Also,narrate: “Mommy is peeling a banana. The banana isyellow. I’m cutting it into pieces with a knife so you caneat it for lunch.” “It may feel ridiculous at first, but you’retalking about an experience, what’s happening next andpredicting and explaining. This helps your baby developlanguage skills and make other valuable brain connections,”says Hunter, — victoria clayton