PrintBy Shawn McKee
Staff Writer
Babies. It seems everybody’s having ‘em these days. Tom “Creepy Dad” Cruise and the girl from Dawson’s Creek had one, Britney Spears had two, Jon and Kate had eight, and your mom keeps asking when you’re going to have one. Well, tell her to back off.
Statistics show 87 percent of women will become mothers at some point, the question then becomes, are they ready?
How Smart is Your Baby? is the new book by Janet Doman, director of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, where studying baby brain development has been the name of the game for more than 50 years.
This book is like an owner’s manual for babies.
“Your car has an owner’s manual, your computer, but there’s no owner’s manual for babies, which are much smarter than people think,” Janet says. She aims to prepare new parents for the joys — and trials — of parenting.
Before you end your procreation procrastination, take this simple true/false quiz to test your parental IQ or to get a better understanding of the littlest person under your roof.
The first 12 months of a baby’s development aren’t that important — they just lay around anyway.
False: The first 12 months of a baby’s life are crucial for learning as the baby is most open to stimulation and education opportunity, according to Janet. The brain grows explosively in the first 12 months, producing more brain cells than any other time and being most accepting to stimulus.
You should talk to your baby like this: “Who de poo de bee, wanna baba?”
False: Stop the baby talk. Treat them like human beings from day one and explain everything to them, says Janet.
“Babies want to communicate from the day they’re born, they have a thousand different needs to communicate,” Janet says. “Explain everything to the child and do it in the way you would any other human.”
Using degraded language because you think it’s cute is not helping your baby. You wouldn’t intentionally teach someone the wrong way to do math, why do it with language?
Start your baby’s day with a Spanish omelet.
True: Or a French lesson, or German, Italian, etc. — the list goes on and on. Children absorb and decode language at an exceptional pace. Janet recommends splitting the days: English in the morning and Spanish in the afternoon (or vice versa) to keep from confusing the child.
“Kids decode language, the more languages he’s around, the more he’ll learn,” explains Janet. “Babies are linguistic geniuses and all they want to do is learn. English starts as a foreign language to a baby, but they master it quickly. Furthermore, if a child is raised bilingual, he’ll pick up a second language as easily as English.”
You should fire your babysitter.
True: “Babies need their parents,” exclaims Janet. She recommends mothers staying home with their babies, the more you’re around, the more you can teach and connect with your baby.
She’s not suggesting today’s liberated woman stay home barefoot and pregnant, but there’s no relationship more important than child and parent. Janet wants a return to a family-first attitude in America: “Women fought for 50 years to not stay home with babies, but it’s the right thing to do. This is simple, but no one dares say it.”
If mom brings home the bacon, dad can stay home and fry it up.
True: “Dads at home are wild!” Janet says excitedly. “Men are great with babies, once they know what to do.”
According to Janet, most men just want to have a good time with the baby, which is great for the baby because all he wants to do is learn and have fun. “Dads are better problem-solvers and, sometimes, dads are much better at certain things than moms.”
You should never throw your baby in the air.
False: (As long as you catch them.) “Throw babies up in the air — babies love it. Plus, it’s terrific vestibular stimulation,” says Janet.
You should throw out the playpen.
True: “Bundling and restricting movement is holding back your baby’s development. Let your baby be mobile. He needs to move!” Janet explains, “Let him explore safely, so he’s learning constantly and get on the floor and crawl together.”
This benefits him not only in learning, but in upper body development, which leads to better respiratory development, better physical strength. And you have to crawl before you can walk, she explains.
If your baby is crying, give him a shot of whiskey.
False: What are you, crazy? It’s a baby, not your drunk uncle Earl.
If you scored four or more, you go ahead and start the fun part of the reproduction process. If you scored three or less, buy a plant and see how that goes first. Good luck!
Set a good example for your family by losing the baby weight and getting healthy! Join eDiets now and save 25% — we know babies are expensive.
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