How to Make Your Baby a Genius

While genetics plays a role in whether your baby will have a genius IQ, his environment also influences his intelligence. In fact, environment is credited with about 50 percent of the IQ variance among children, according to a 2014 study conducted with white, African American and Hispanic people. The influence of environment on on babies, however, is greater than 50 percent. Start before your baby is even born by eating a healthy diet, and then interact with your baby consistently after birth to potentially boost her IQ.

  1. Start Before Your Baby Is Born

    • A healthy and well-balanced diet while you're pregnant can influence your baby's growth and development in the womb. This includes brain development. Omega-3 fatty acids -- found in salmon, walnuts and flaxseed -- act as building blocks for the brain, according to a 2013 study by researchers at the University of Granada. These same fatty acids help regulate brain functions related to cognition and learning, according to a 2012 article published in "Scientific World Journal." Researchers from the University of Granada also noted that these same foods supply iodine, a nutrient that can boost reading skills.

    Have Lots of Conversations

    • Talk to your baby all the time, making eye contact as often as possible. The number of words your baby hears has an influence on his IQ, so the more you talk to him the higher his IQ is likely to be, Lise Eliot, an associate professor of neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science, told "Parents" magazine. Tell your baby what he's seeing as you run errands, or take him to the zoo and describe the colors and other characteristics of animals. Playing "Where's Mommy? Where's Daddy?" sharpens auditory discrimination skills, according to Dr. David Perlmutter and Carol Colman, the authors of "Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten."

    Interact With Your Baby

    • Read books with your baby often. Reading together will help her realize that books contain letters and words, and she will begin to follow from left to right with her eyes. Singing to your baby can have similar benefits, according to Holly Engel-Smothers and Susan M. Heim, the authors of "Boosting Your Baby's Brain Power." Snuggling with your baby and teaching her sign language are additional ways to help boost her IQ. Infant massage is correlated with brain development, as well, Engel-Smothers and Heim note.

    Establish Eating and Sleeping Habits

    • Breastfeed as much and for as long as you can. A 2010 study done with 2,868 Australian children and published in "Pediatrics" reveals that babies who were breastfed for at least six months scored higher on academic tests. The study also revealed that the differences are more notable for boys. If you can't breastfeed, use a formula fortified with iron, which is a key requirement for cognitive development. Ensuring that your infant sleeps enough is also crucial to brain development, because it's while she's asleep that her brain is processing everything she's been exposed to during her awake hours. Newborns sleep for between 16 and 20 hours per day while 3-month-old infants typically sleep for 13 hours during every 24-hour period. Babies between the ages of 6 and 12 months usually sleep for between nine and 11 hours at night and three hours during the day.

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