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Roadmap to your child’s brain |
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Parents can have a lot of impact on their child’s developing brain --
from conception through college -- but not in the ways they may think.
In fact, many of us do a lot of wrong things in attempting to cultivate
our little geniuses IQ’s by sitting them in front of a Baby Einstein
DVD, for example. And we skip some right ones, like eating fish when
we’re pregnant because we’re afraid of the mercury content.
Those useful gems are found in a new book called Welcome to Your Child’s Brain (Bloomsbury, 2011) by neuroscientists Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang. Wang, an associate professor of neuroscience at Princeton University, spoke with me about smart things parents can do to cultivate their child’s mind and stupid things they should avoid. Smart: Eat fish when pregnant. Women are told to limit their fish intake when pregnant since fatty fish tends to contain some mercury, which can be toxic at high levels. But the latest research suggests that babies born to mothers who eat fatty fish like salmon and tuna regularly have higher IQ’s. That’s because fatty fish contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are crucial for brain development. Aim for two six-ounce fish servings per week, said Wang, preferably salmon or sardines, which have the highest levels of omega-3’s. Read the complete story from The Boston Globe
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HASTINGS: Time to improve the Endangered Species Act
May 18, 2012 - When the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law in 1973 by President Nixon, he spoke about the importance of preserving “the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” I believe that goal is as important today as it was back then. However, after nearly 40 years, it’s time to take a fresh, honest look at the law and consider whether there are ways it could be improved to do a better job of protecting and recovering species.
