Tips for Growing Your Baby's Brain
Developed by Kevin Karpowicz, M.D., Schenectady, New York
Tip #12: Develop Trust
Learning your baby's signals, and providing regular, predictable, and sensitive care will help your baby fall madly in love with you – and help you fall madly in love with your baby!
- The 100 billion brain cells your baby was born with start to grow huge numbers of connections after birth. Each brain cell may be connected to up to 15,000 other cells. The way these connections are built, depends on what kinds of experiences your baby has.
- Brain connections having to do with simple functions like becoming organized, developing control over limbs, and being able to pay attention to the world, happen during the first 6 months of life. These abilities form the foundation for the next area to grow – the area of the brain where trust begins.
- How does a baby learn trust? When your baby lets you know she or he needs something and you respond, figuring out what baby needs and then providing it, you are helping your baby learn to trust. The more times this pattern is repeated, the more brain connections are made and then used again and again. These connections start to become permanent, so that your baby starts to associate you with feelings of being taken care of. Your baby will also start to make other associations – familiar sights, sounds, and smells.
- But if a baby is ignored, or not promptly taken care of, two things will happen. One is that the baby's stress will cause the release of stress hormones that may damage the brain. The other is that the baby will not learn to trust. If this does not happen, the thinking part of the baby's brain – the next area to develop – will not be able to grow properly. This baby will have trouble reasoning and learning, and may have a lot of trouble later on in school.
