Friday, July 8, 2011

"Explosive" Brain Growth: Baby's First Month

Damien (at 5 weeks), in the hat that he wore home from the hospital
"From the moment of birth, the rate of growth of the brain is on a descending curve. Each day the brain grows a little less than it did the day before. During the period of greatest growth, the baby is able to take in raw information at a rate that is truly astounding. But this process will be a little bit slower each day." 
Glenn Doman, How Smart is Your Baby?

Brain growth is an inverse property of age, right? The younger you are, the more rapidly your brain is growing.

On the day he turned one month old, I took Damien's measurements. He had gained a whopping two pounds since birth, and grown a full inch. But the most miraculous, I believe, was the growth in his head circumference.

His little brain grew 5 centimeters in his first month.

As an example of what that looks like, compare the picture above of the one below:

Damien at one day old

On a side note, he jumped from being in the 50th percentile (35 cm) for head circumference at birth, to being in the 80th percentile (40 cm) at one month. In short, his brain really is growing at a higher than normal rate.

Incredible, isn't it?

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." 
2 Peter 3:18
Damien is 5 weeks, 1 day old

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with you son! I didn't find Doman until my son was 3.5 months, so didn't get to do all of the really early stuff. We had also started some bad habits by that point that were almost unbreakable. It is an inspiration to see what I have read put into action from birth. I know with my next baby I will be coming back to your blog for encouragement! Keep up the great work!

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