Food and Intelligent Babies — When I found out I was pregnant, the first thing that came to my mind was how will my baby look like? I wasn’t so concerned about intelligence because I’m a very intelligent woman, and I was never expecting less from any of my children. I believe they will be more. I’m my father’s daughter I would say.

Everyone is aware that children do not take their intelligence from men as the intelligent hormone (X Chromosome) is more dominant in women. Women have XX while men have XY chromosome. And also research has shown that gene for advanced cognitive reasoning known maybe deactivated. Research shown that this gene can only be activated if they come from the mother. So literally how intelligent a child would be is mainly from the mother’s gene.

Since I became a mum, I have seen questions like how can I make my baby more intelligent? And I have seen reactions like, intelligence only come from the parent and that nothing you can feed your children can make them intelligent if you are not intelligent.

These are blatant lies and not research oriented.

It is not true that intelligent hormone is gotten from the parent, it is very correct that intelligence hormones is only present in the mother’s gene. The level of intelligence gotten from the mother is often 40-60% . While the remaining percentage comes from the environment you live, relationship with children and the kind of nutrition they are exposed to.

So, let assume a mother is not very intelligent or she is not even intelligent. Research did not show that her offspring will not be intelligent. Apart from the intelligences gene, we have the bonding level, the environment type and the kind of nutrition the child is fed with.

How To Boost Your Baby’s Intelligence

Now, let start with pregnancy nutrition. For every trimester of pregnancy, there are certain food a woman who is working towards having intelligent children should focus on. The first trimester from six weeks is a great time to eat food that are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. The same way foetus need food to develop physically while in the belly is the same way they need some certain diet for good brain development.

Also, I have met people say there are no difference between exclusively breastfed babies and Formula fed babies. This is one major problem we need to consider when dealing with  mental development of children.

A mother who takes a healthy diet and breast fed her child exclusively can not but have an intelligent child. The level of intelligence may differ base on the woman’s level of intelligence hormone, bonding with the child and the environment. But the most important thing to know and consider is, Children who are breastfed exclusively will always have a good ratio of intelligence level with all the other option been in good standard.

The question ‘what food can I give my child to make them intelligent’ is actually a valid question.

Intelligence are not only gotten from the mother but also from the kind of bonding children share with their parent, the kind of environment they are exposed to and ultimately the kind of nutrition they are given.

Let me give your some bonding hacks that helps with children.

• Massaging them from month three

• Talking to them and smiling at them constantly (and everytime they wake from sleep)

• Initiating a playing methods or following up actively a playing method they have from month six

Environmental Hacks

• Exposing children to environment where they can watch learning cartoons
• Understanding the cartoons type they focus on
• Singing the cartoon songs or mentioning a part of conversation from the cartoon during a off television period
• Try and avoid putting your babies In a noisy environment, most especially where the noise is not meaningful.

Nutrition Hacks

• Start with egg yolks
• Check out with food nutritionist to know what food is best for your baby.
• Consider a finger food they love to eat and enrich it with brain development food.

Temi Badmus, Content Creator, Food Scientist and Nutritionist