Brain Rules for Baby - By: Dr. John Medina

I mentioned this book in my last blog but wanted to dive into talking about it a little more. A girlfriend of mine worked as a nanny for a family who had just had a baby that recommended she read this book. After reading it, she passed it on to me and once I am done Clint will be reading it and I'm sure I will pass it on to  any of my Mommy friends. This guy knows what he is talking about and he has a witty way of explaining the things he believes to be true with the scientific research and studies behind it all -- without dumbing it down too much. He also adds his own comical sarcasm to a lot of - funny to those with a science background. I just wanted to throw in an excerpt from the book to give you an idea of what it's all about. This particular excerpt comes from the "Pregnancy Chapter" and is in the middle of the topic on the actual creation of a baby where it begins - conception. I'm breaking into it where he is describing how as these cells divide and therefore multiply, they create masses. Each cell mass has a specific job. 

"We need to stop right here and contemplate something: The inner cell mass at this stage possesses a cell whose entire offspring will form the human brain. The most complex information-processing device ever constructed is on its way. And it starts out a fraction of the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

I have been studying this stuff for more than 20 years. I still find it amazing. As scientist Lewis Thomas put it in Lives of a Cell: "The mere existence of such a cell should be one of the great astonishments of the earth. People ought to be walking around all day, all through their waking hours, calling to each other in endless wonderment, talking of nothing except that cell." Go ahead, call your neighbor; I'll wait.

The miracle continues. If you could see it in action, this embryo floating in seawater, you would notice that the inner cell mass is actually swarming with cells, scurrying around the embryo like busy short-order cooks at the county fair. The cells arrange themselves into three living layers, looking for all the world like a cheeseburger. The bottom bun, called the endoderm, will form most of the cell systems that line your baby's organs and vessels. The burger layer, the mesoderm, forms his muscles, respiratory systems, digestive systems, and bones. The top bun is the ectoderm. It will create your baby's skin, hair, nails, and nervous systems. It is within the ectoderm that his miraculous little pre-brain cell resides." 

I have always been against abortion. But if this excerpt doesn't put the life behind a baby even at conception into perspective; I don't know what does. There are many other things I'll probably cite out of this book - this was just in the first chapter and what initially hooked me. So go ahead - call your neighbors ;) I'll wait.