Childhood development. Healthy eating and early learning. Part 3

We have spoken a lot in this blog about the importance of organic baby food and healthy eating being important for babies and for pregnant mothers-to-be. On the one hand it’s pretty obvious, on the other hand we have a tendency to say how much of a problem can it be?

Regular readers will know that we like to keep up with the latest thinking, so we thought a recent report from Australian scientists working on this very issue would be of interest.

Genetics

Groundbreaking research has found a baby’s future health depends more on its environment in the womb than genetics. Melbourne scientists have discovered just how big a role factors like drinking, smoking and diet play in the baby’s adult life.

They say they were surprised to find how important the size of the placenta, and the supply lines to the fetus are to future health.

The findings support the belief that many adult diseases are thought to develop in very early life.

You may have heard of something called “epigenetics”? Epigenetics has been defined as ‘‘the structural adaptation of chromosomal regions so as to register, signal or perpetuate altered activity states’’ (Bird 2007). Simply put, your genetic make up is set from conception, but how your genes “express” themselves later in life can be very much affected by environmental factors, like diet and the ingestion of toxins. The Melbourne research, based on the study of the neonatal DNA of twins, is adding to the body of scientific evidence confirming that we can and do affect our lives by what we put into our bodies, even before birth.

We don’t view this as some kind of problem, more like confirmation that paying attention to Mindful Eating pays off, both for mothers and their babies. Talking to our friends at Mother & Baby magazine they told us that in a recent survey, 88% of new mothers said they would prefer to buy organic food for their babies, so it’s clear that mothers are getting the information that helps them make informed decisions on diet.

Early Learning

So that’s the healthy eating. What about the early learning? Well we’d like to draw your attention to a fascinating book written by Anne Stonehouse for Early Learning Australia called “Everyday Learning. About babies as amazing learners” Anne shares a lot of really great insights in her book and it provides a very practical appreciation of just how amazing babies really are at learning and how you can help the process appropriately – right from the start.