Do you know that the first thousand days of children’s life starts since in the womb, is their critical period of development because at that time the brain is growing and developing rapidly? About eighty percent of the brain development occurs in the golden period. After that, the brain will still develop rapidly until they reach the age of 5 years old, but not as fast as the golden period.
When they were born, children have billions of nerve cells and tissues. This is a potential that need to be developed as much as possible. How is it done? By giving the right nutrition and stimulation.
What are the nutrients needed for children’s brain development?
- Glucose. In order to function completely, the brain needs glucose. Without glucose, the children will be difficult to process and store new information. Glucose can be obtained from foods that contain carbohydrate such as rice, potatoes, pasta and so on.
- Protein and Fiber. Foods that are rich in protein and fiber like cereals and oatmeal served with milk can increase the brain performance to 20 percent, as well as strengthening children’s memory ability.
- Choline. It is beneficial in improving the memory storage, thinking ability, language and motor movement. Food that contains choline is egg.
- Essential Fatty Acids. This nutrition, which is very important in the formation and regulation of nerve cells, contains omega-3 (ALA, EPA and DHA) and omega-6 (linoleic acid). ALA can be found in walnuts and soybeans. And EPA and DHA are contained in salmon, mackerel and sardines. Omega-6 can be obtained from corn oil, sunflower seed oil and soybean oil.
- Iodine. This minerals help in the nerve cells development in the brain. Iodine can be found from salt, yogurt and potatoes.
Besides fulfilling their nutritional needs, children also require stimulation to stimulate their brain development. Lack of stimulation during this golden period can cause their brain nerve cells to develop not optimally.
Here are some aspects of children’s brain development:
Motor Development
The stimulation of children’s motor development should be done according to their age. First, put your babies to lie on their stomach so they can practice to lift their head so their neck muscles are strong. Give them some toys with attractive colors and can produce sound to stimulate the children to move their hands and feet to reach for the toys. As they grow older, children can be trained to tilt to the right or left side, sit, stand and walk.
Don’t forget their fine motor skills by train them to grasp things, insert food into their mouth and scribble on a piece of paper.
Language Development
The essential key to language development is by talking to the children often. Although at first they may not understand what you say, but this can stimulate them to recognize your voice and speech. The stimulation can also be done by singing.
Emotional Development
To stimulate a good emotional development, Moms should maintain a good communication with the children. Be a good listener, treat them with affection and show that Moms love and protect them by hugging them.
Cognitive Development
Children’s intelligence can be trained by playing. Choose a game according to their age stage, starting from recognizing shapes, colors, names of objects, function and how an object works, how to manipulate the object, how to solve problems and so on.
EN
