Parenting Blog

New parents come across a phase when they are bombarded with advices from all the directions. Grandparents, friends and society cannot help giving instructions every now and then. But to what extent are they correct? There is a lot of difference between a Myth and a Reality and parents should be able to distinguish between them to make intelligent decisions.

1. Toys + Baby = Smarter Baby

Myth: For maximum brain activity, baby needs sophisticated toys.
Reality: There’s no experimental evidence that a particular toy will make baby smarter.

Expert explains: A stimulating environment is favorable for a baby learning to explore the environment but sophisticated toys are not necessary. It’s true that babies seem to have a visual inclination for contrasting black and white images; still parents shouldn’t have false impression that flooding baby’s room with such images will result into increased intelligence levels.

2. Speech delays

Myth: Children overcome problems like speech and language delay with age; it’s nothing to be worried about.
Reality: Go to the doctor soon if your child is showing such delays.

Expert explains: Parents should know the difference between speech (quality of sound) and language (content of communication) and take delays seriously. Autism and other cognitive problems can be detected at an early age by observing carefully such delays.

3. Younger one lags

Myth: In a large family, the youngest child is a late talker.
Reality: Birth order is not a deciding factor; it affects baby’s speech and language patterns negligibly.

Expert explains: Every family has a different environment, so birth order might have a small impact. But it doesn’t mean that parents can ignore the delay problems assuming the family baby will be a late talker.

4. Reading habits

Myth: Child’s vision will be damaged if he holds book very close to his eyes.
Reality: It might indicate short-sightedness (myopia).

Expert explains: Consult a pediatrician if the child is uncomfortable with far placed objects. Otherwise, keeping a book close won’t hurt your child’s vision.

5. Height at birth

Myth: Adult height is decided by baby’s height at birth.
Reality: Measurement afterwards might predict adult height but not length at birth.

Expert explains: Height is decided primarily by genetic structure. You can often hear people saying if a child is short at birth, he will be short as an adult as well. This is completely vague. Doubling the child’s height at age 2 can give the approximate height of a child as an adult.

Thus, under any circumstances parents should not panic and avoid confusions. If they still have any doubts or questions in their mind they should always try to get the right advice from medical practitioners.