CHD2220 Ch 5 6 7 and Cognitive Development ch 2 The Birth of the Baby Transition to parenthood about a month before birth the women is exhausted from sleep deprivation when she goes into labor She will also have sleep deprivation once the baby is born Often times this can cause postpartum depression Postpartum Depression even though mother is happy about having the baby depression may occur The depression is rooted from the baby being a huge demand of attention and work The woman may show no signs of previous depression for postpartum depression to take place Period of Confinement many years ago women were financially supported for up to a week after the actual birth of the baby for rest and recovery Now insurance only covers 48 hours Breastfeeding and Nutrition in Infancy Lactation Specialist come into a woman s hospital room after the birth of the baby to encourage breastfeeding to the new mother Lactation breastfeeding receiving nutrition through mother s breast Carries immunities to some things and will cause the infant to have less respiratory problems Formula Feeding simulation of breast milk will not provide any immunity Also expensive Cholesterom is pumped out of the breast before the milk comes out This is how breastfeeding created immunity Mastitis painful dangerous infection of the breast Must be treated with antibiotics Weaning taking baby off the breast to a bottle or cup Breast Pump milk can be pumped out of the breast with this device and can be stored in bottles Breast milk of a healthy mother contains all of the required nutrients that the infant needs Although if the mother chooses not to or cannot breastfeed formula made from modified cow milk formula is nutritionally accepted Parents should not rely on their own intuition or on unreliable sources in establishing good nutrition for their infants particularly parents should avoid feeding their infants as they feed themselves Most women are able to breastfeed and keep the baby healthy If the baby begins to lose weight during the first 2 weeks the breast milk may be insufficient Insufficient breast milk can lead to brain damage if fed to the baby for too long There is no correlation between breast size and breast milk Often times areoles are too sensitive to breast feed This can cause cracks in skin which leads to bleeding At this point bottle feeding needs to occur Babies who are breast fed have a somewhat lower chance of obesity when they get older Some researches think breast fed babies have higher IQ s This is not true The development of the brain All aspects of development are mediated by the central nervous system Any forces that endanger the central nervous system development are the greatest risk to overall development The development of the brain is highly sensitive to early stimulation The brain begins to form just days after conception Nerve cells don t actually touch each other but adjoining cells form a microscopic gap called a synapse which is structured to allow impulses to be conducted from cell to cell by chemicals known as neurotransmitters Synaptogenesis process where synapses begin to develop in very large numbers prenatally and continue to increase in extraordinary large numbers through the first 3 years of life At the child s highest level of synaptic density at the end of the 3rd year it is estimated that a single neuron may form 15 000 synapses with adjoining nerve cells At this point in development the brain contains approximately one thousand trillion synapses in the nervous system 50 more than in the adult brain Why is this so The fundamental structure of the nervous system is designed to manage the storage and transfer of all the information necessary to support the biological psychological functions Adults have a need to survive and the brain must not only have the capacity to deal with typical requirements but adapt in the face of new and unanticipated challenges to survival Plasticity of the human brain if one part of the nervous system becomes damaged or unable to function other parts of the system will be able to take over The old you get the less plasticity your brain has Pruning synapses and cells that are not stimulated are eliminated through this massive and continuing destructive process Apoptosis cell suicide cells destroy themselves Much of pruning occurs during adolescence resulting in an adult brain with 50 of the synapses that were in the 3 year old brain Brain grows in direct proportion to how much stimulation it receives Babies are born with an inherent curiosity The smarter a person is the more adaptive to the environment that they are When the baby is born it is 100 billion nerve cells Every neuron has a designated place in the nervous system If neurons do not take the correct migratory patterns the brain will become insufficient for the part that was supposed to receive those neurons From 2 or 3 years to 10 years the synapse amount remains the same After 10 years synapses begin to readily decrease Lose half of synapses between the ages of 10 and 20 After age 20 the synapses stabilization Neurotransmitters chemical base for carrying impulses Use it or lose it principle if you don t stimulate the brain cells become damaged The best way to avoid this is by taking the baby out of its crib putting it on the floor and letting it explore its curiosity The dying off of cells is lessened by stimulation Infant Perception and How it s Studied The perceptual system and brain were in sync Even when the baby is still inside the mother the child can feel hear everything that is going on Ex baby would be able to hear the mother and father fighting Visual Preference Method researcher presents pairs of stimuli to the baby and records changes in fixation Fants 1963 found that a 2 day old infant discriminated against visual stimuli faces and circles and preferred patterned stimuli disorganized arrays of lines Method of Event Related Potentials electrodes are attached to the scalp of the infant to measure changes in electrical activity in the brain in response to changing stimuli presented to the infant Variations in brain wave patterns to different stimuli are interpreted as indication that the infant has perceived the stimuli Habituation Dishabituation Potentials researchers take advantage of the fact that like adults infants react to changes in sound smell taste or visual display by staring blinking ducking reaching or blushing and or in changes of heart rate or respiration In this
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