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Congratulations!

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Questions like:• What can my baby learn while still in the womb?

• What’s going to happen to my marriage after we bring our baby home?

• How can I make sure my little girl is going to be happy?

• How do I get my kid into Harvard?

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you might remember him from his New York Times bestselling book, Brain Rules

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but especially brains in ... kids

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and in Brain Rules For Baby, he describes what brain science can teach us about raising smart, happy kids.

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Myth: Playing Mozart to your womb will improve your baby’s future math scores.

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If you want your child to do well in math, teach her impulse control at a young age. And that’s only one benefit.

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Myth: To boost their brain power, children need French lessons by age 3 and a room piled with “brain-friendly” toys and a library of educational DVDs.

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The greatest pediatric brain-boosting technology in the world is probably a plain cardboard box, a fresh box of crayons, and two hours. The worst is probably your new flat-screen TV!

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Truths like these are continually published in respected scientific journals. But unless you have a subscription to them, you might not have heard the news.

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Brain Rules For Baby is meant to let you know what scientists know about babies’ brains—without having a Ph.D. to understand it.

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Brain Rule: Babies develop an active mental life in the womb

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In the first half of pregnancy, babies mostly want to be left alone.

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might actually be your baby’s way of making you SLOW DOWN!

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Morning sickness can last the entire day (and, for some women, the entire pregnancy). It makes an expecting mom stick to a bland, boring diet...

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...and the accompanying fatigue could keep a woman away from physical activity that might be risky to her developing baby. But, good news.

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A study shows that 21% of children whose mothers suffered from major nausea and vomiting during pregnancy scored 130 or more points on a standard IQ test, compared to only 7% of kids whose mothers had no morning sickness.

Why? We don’t know for sure yet.

Whatever the reasons, baby goes to great lengths to get you to leave it alone.

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Babies begin to perceive and process a great deal of sensory information.

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after the sixth month, your baby can smell the perfume you wear, and she can detect the garlic on the pizza you just ate.

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?But what can YOU actively do to help your baby while she’s still in the womb?

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An enormous sector of the toy economy tries to answer this question by playing off the fears of well-meaning parents.

Pay close attention, for I am about to save you a ton of money.

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No commercial product has ever been shown to do anything to improve the brain performance of a developing fetus.

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In any toy store today, you’ll find products claiming they can raise your baby’s IQ or teach him a second language in the womb.

Almost none of these product’s claims are backed up by in-house testing, let alone by independent, peer-reviewed research.

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But there ARE things you can do to aid the cognitive development of your baby-under-construction.

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You’re pregnant, so you need to eat more food. And if you don’t overdo it, you will grow a smarter baby. Why? Your baby’s IQ is a function of her brain’s size.

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That depends upon how fit you are going into pregnancy.

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The bad news is that 55% of women of childbearing age in the US are already too fat.

If your Body Mass Index (BMI) is 25–29.9, you need to gain only about 15 to 25 pounds to create a healthy baby.

(You want to add about half a pound a week in the critical second and third trimesters.)

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If you are underweight, with a BMI of less than 18.5, you need to gain between 28 and 40 pounds during pregnancy to optimize your baby’s brain development.

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That’s about a pound a week in the critical last half of pregnancy. Same for women of normal weight, too.

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Pickled okra

Baby talcum powder

Dust

Lemon juice on burritos

Crushed ice

Dirt

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The best pregnancy diet is a bit boring. And familiar. Eating a balanced meal, with a heavy emphasis on fruits and vegetables, is probably still the best advice for pregnant women.

Non-vegetarians need a source of iron in the form of red meat.

Researchers also recommend that pregnant women eat at least 12 ounces of fish per week. That provides you with essential Omega-3s, which aid cellular development.

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So, you need enough food, but not too much, and you need the right types of food, but not too little.

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That’s because of the third baby brain booster...

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What I mean here is: Avoid toxic stress. The kind where you feel out of control of the situation.

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may change the temperament of your child.

Infants become more irritable, less consolable, when mom is continually stressed.

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Certain types of stress can lower your baby’s IQ an average of 8 points.

That can be the difference between “average IQ” and “bright normal.”

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On top of all that, STRESS can inhibit your baby’s future motor skills, ability to concentrate, and stress-response system.

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For optimal development of your baby’s brain, exist in a less-stressed environment, especially in the last few months of pregnancy.

For some, that means gathering the courage to exit a bad situation. For others, that means general stress relief.

Check brainrules.net for techniques proven to reduce stress in general.

A big one is...

the fourth way to boost your baby’s brain during pregnancy:

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That painful phase of labor, where you have to do a lot of pushing, lasts an average of 27 minutes for fit women.

Physically unfit women have to push for almost an hour, studies show—some far longer.

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Because of that, a fit mom has a better chance of having a smarter baby—one best able to mobilize his or her IQ—than an unfit mom.

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Caution: Too much strenuous exercise can cause baby to overheat, which can restrict blood flow to your baby’s brain.

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moderate

regular

aerobic

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For most women, that means keeping your heart rate below 70% of its maximum rate, then slowing things down as the due date approaches.

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max rate: 220 beats / min, minus your age

Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise in later stages in pregnancy.

Among its many benefits (it’s gentler on the joints, for one), the water dissipates excess heat away from the womb.

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Darn it: 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise per day. That’s what the American College of Obstetricians recommends.

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#1 Gain just the right amount of weight

#2 Eat the right types of food

#3 Avoid toxic stress

#4 Exercise just the right amount

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Well, remember that humans have been making babies for a long, long, long time.

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so a little brain science never hurts.

Brain Rules For Baby is here to help you enjoy the amazing journey of parenthood.

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You’re on your way to a smart and happy baby!

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Join the movement to raise happy and smart babies at

www.brainrules.net

photo credits:

Aidswarrio, Beniamin Pop, Clix, Diego medrano, Doriana_s, Julia Freeman-Woolpert, Kriss Szkurlatowski, Laura-s, Leikinna, Mark Anthony, Michaela Kobyakov, Patryk Specjal, Rick Hawkins, Simona Balint, Svilen Milev

“Bound to be a modern-day SDUHQWLQJ�FODVVLF�Ş

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