Happy Days » Your baby’s sensory world

  Congratulations, you are pregnant and inside of you is growing and developing a little life. Over the next 9 months, there will be so many changes for you and your baby. Each month, your baby will change so much, as he prepares to cope with our busy world. The shifts for you are also immense. This month, we look at the monthly changes that you and baby go through during this precious time. Month 1 Baby – The sense of touch is your baby’s first sense to develop and is the most well developed sense at birth. Your baby’s touch system began to develop before you even knew you were...

  In the last trimester of pregnancy, your little one’s sensory systems begin to make connections in the brain and learning starts. However, unlike other mammals, human babies are born relatively immature. Consider the newborn antelope, springing across the African veld, following the rest of the herd only hours after birth. Her ability to keep up with her mother as the herd moves on is essential for the survival of the species but it is also made possible because of her relative maturity at birth. The human babies are born way less mature, with limited ability to act on their world. The...

  The uterus is undisputedly the ultimate environment for the development and nurturing of a fetus. The sensory systems develop throughout pregnancy and affect the brain’s development. Fetal sensory development Your baby begins to develop on a sensory level from the moment of conception. The first sense to develop is the sense of touch, emerging at 3 weeks gestation – before you knew your were pregnant. By the twelfth week, your baby can feel and responds to touch on his entire body, with the exception of the top of his head, which remains insensitive until birth. The auditory system...

The womb is the ideal environment from every perspective for your developing baby. It is warm and tight, with lulling movement and meets your little one’s every need. It is from this ideal environment that your baby emerges into our busy and much less baby-friendly world. Meg Faure, OT and co-author in the Sense Series, looks at ways to ease your baby’s transition on the day of her birth by making little adjustments to the delivery room. Touch Without question the very best you can do for your baby in terms of touch in the first few days is to hold your baby skin-to-skin. The familiar...

Summer in the UK can mean rainy, wet weather while cold wintery conditions in SA mean we are spending less time outdoors than we usually do.  Wherever you are in the world when the weather is not too great it can be a battle to think of things to do with your tots indoors.  Baby Sense to the rescue!  Here are 20 fun and easy activities to try on a rainy day. 1.  Bring out door inside Bring toys you usually have in the garden inside.  You may find that they are used in different ways.  A paddle pool filled with beanbags or soft toys is different to a paddle pool of water.   A skipping rope...