By now, all young women know that by leading a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy can give them big and strong babies. But now, this can also make these babies smarter. If you make easy choices every day like eating a green salad for lunch to doing the treadmill routinely, you can actually be building our baby’s brain. What you, as a new mother, do during your pregnancy can have a huge impact on your child’s mental growth.

Here are 10 top tips that can help you have a smart baby:

10 Pregnancy Tips To Make A Clever Baby

1. Take a prenatal supplement

By taking a prenatal supplement with Vitamin B folic acid can help your baby have a healthy brain. They also have a 40% lower chance of having autism. You can get your intake of folic acid by eating lentils, spinach, breakfast cereals, fatty fish like salmon and trout, walnuts, eggs and ground flaxseed. Add fruits and vegetables to your diet too and dried fruits, milk and orange juice.

2. Work out every day

By working out every day before you deliver the baby, you will get all the stamina you need during labor. This can also add strength to your baby’s brain. A study reported in the Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine states that babies of moms who exercised regularly during pregnancy scored much higher on intelligence and language skills tests as against kids of moms who did not exercise during pregnancy. This is because the stress hormone cortisol is released during exercise which stimulates the growth and development of the fetus’ brain and other organs.

3. Treat thyroid problems urgently

It’s important for pregnant women to treat their thyroid problems that may arise at this time. Over-or under-production of thyroid in a pregnant woman’s blood can harm the baby. Low levels of thyroid hormone cause IQ problems in childhood. To have one’s thyroid glands functioning optimally, pregnant women should take 220mcg of iodine per day which is available in milk, iodized salt and yogurt

4. Bond with your baby

One way of doing this is to speak to your baby on and off and form a close relationship with your unborn baby earlier than he’s born. In your fifth month of pregnancy, your baby will be able to hear sounds and respond to them. You can also read to your baby, talk to him or sing to your baby.

5. Play music

It’s a proven fact that unborn babies already have a taste for music. This helps trigger the chemical serotonin, which helps the baby remain calm and satisfied.

6. Read to your unborn baby

The foundations for speech originates in the womb and by the third trimester, the baby can learn sounds that he or she hears regularly.

7. Bring the sunshine into your life

During pregnancy, ensure that you spend some time in the early morning sunshine. About 20-30 minutes per day is just right. Of course, you can also get this from supplements or food. This vitamin is important to your baby as it helps grow strong heart and bones and prevents autism from setting in.

8. Send calming messages

Around week 20, you will want to touch your bump and stroke it, all the while sending serene messages to your baby. Now, a baby can typically differentiate between a mother’s and father’s touch. Massage your bump and come closer to your baby now.

9. Sing nursery rhymes

Babies can pick up the inflections in our voices and this can be highlighted by singing nursery rhymes to them. Once the baby is born, continue to sing the same rhymes to him to soothe and hush him.

10. Speak to your baby

Ignore those who laugh at you when they see you talking to your baby bump. They don’t know that you are introducing your baby to new ideas, concepts, thoughts, etc. In fact, from week 16, they can hear and by week 27, they are well-connected from the ear to the brain. According to studies, newborns respond to languages they heard while in the womb. If the baby is going to be born into a bilingual family, it will begin to respond to both languages while still in the womb.

Conclusion

As you can see, you don’t have to do anything supremely difficult or expensive to prepare yourself to have a really smart baby. Would you like to try?