This is according to Annelie Kruger, a teacher, wife, and mother who has found a way to live out her passion for early childhood development.<\/p>\n
Annelie is a BabyGym instructor in Bloemfontein who takes pride in guiding parents through the first 1000 days of their little one\u2019s lives. \u201cIt is my great privilege to share these special, intimate moments with many mothers and babies in Bloemfontein,\u201d she said.\u00a0Kruger explained that the first 1000 days are the most important days of a newborn\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
\u201cA healthy baby is born with approximately 100 billion neurons or brain cells. The communication between the senses, brain and muscles is what develops the networks between the neurons. The first two years offer a window of opportunity to create as many well-developed, brain pathways as possible. After two years, the brain starts to prune, or cut back, the pathways that are no longer used to prioritise and optimise the pathways that are continuously being used.\u201d<\/p>\n
To reiterate her point, Tertia de Bruin from the MACAH Foundation, highlighted that the first 1000 days of a baby\u2019s life \u2013 the time between conception and a child\u2019s second birthday \u2013 is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established.<\/p>\n
Therefore, nutrition and environmental factors during the 1000-day window can positively affect a baby\u2019s growth, brain development, digestive tract, metabolism, immune system and mental health.<\/p>\n
She further advised that a well-balanced diet with optimal amounts of essential nutrients becomes critical in early life for securing the future health of any human being.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese factors, including maternal health status and disorders such as obesity and diabetes, can alter foetal metabolism, growth, hormonal responses, gene expression, and other variables impacting lifelong health \u2013 which is called early developmental programming of adult health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may influence the child\u2019s risk of stunting, obesity, allergies, diabetes, cardiovascular and skeletal diseases later in life,\u201d said Tersia.<\/p>\n
Tersia further said science suggests that it is a far better policy to build the brain right in the first place through nutritional deficit prevention programmes than to depend on replacement therapy once a deficit has occurred.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the importance of educating yourself as a parent, Annelie said that through BabyGym, parents are allowed to learn the fundamentals of infant brain development \u201cwhen we gradually and gently wake up all of baby\u2019s senses according to the natural sequence of sensory development and muscles in a specific sequence,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Classes at the institute include parent and baby classes that start as early as 6 weeks after birth and accredited classroom-style workshops for adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowledge is power. Find one trusted source to guide you through your new journey. My source was Dr Melodie de Jager. Motherly and Fatherly instinct is a wonderful gift we often underestimate. Be present in the moment. Our little ones grow up so fast,\u201d concluded Kruger.<\/p>\n