GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Interventions to support responsive caregiving during the postnatal period should focus on promoting positive interactions and strengthening the caregiver/infant relationship.

Health care workers should encourage mothers, fathers, and other caregivers to be aware and responsive, responding to the child's needs, cues, clues, behaviors, and desires.

It is important to encourage caregivers to develop skills in the contexts of play, communication and feeding, such as breastfeeding on demand.

Early childhood (from birth to 8 years of age) is key to achieving the maximum development of the human being. This stage comprises the most sensitive period for brain development and extends from pregnancy (during organogenesis), until 3 years after birth, when the greatest number of neural connections and circuits are formed and the maturation of the central nervous system gets completed.

Early childhood (birth to 8 years of age) is key to achieving a human being’s maximum developmental potential. This stage comprises the most sensitive period for brain development. This is the time of life when children's developmental potential is most susceptible to environmental stimuli and early experiences, which influence learning, health, behavior and, in the long term, adult social relationships and well-being.

Nutritional interventions are important in the development of young children. However, they are not enough on their own. They must be accompanied by responsive care in the context of early learning opportunities.
A paradigmatic example of adequate nutrition and responsive care is the feeding of human milk on demand to newborns and infants.

Early learning is any opportunity for an infant, toddler or older child to interact with a person, place or object in their surroundings. Such interactions contribute to brain development and lay the foundation for later learning.
Activities that support early learning in the newborn period include making eye contact, smiling, talking, singing, and gently massaging the infant. Responding in a timely manner or anticipating the infant's cues also promotes early learning.

Early learning is defined as any opportunity for an infant, toddler, or older child to interact with a person, place or object around them. Such (positive or negative) interactions, or lack thereof, contribute to brain development and lay the foundation for later learning.
Infants and children should engage in early learning activities with their fathers, mothers and other caregivers between 0 and 3 years after birth.
Activities that support early learning in the neonatal period include making eye contact, smiling, talking, singing, and gently massaging the infant.

Gentle full-body massages are recommended for full-term newborns for their potential growth and developmental benefits.

Gentle stroking and massage provide an opportunity to stimulate infants and interact with them.

Reactions to massage should be respected according to the principles of tender and sensitive care.

It is recommended to consider gentle whole body massage for healthy full-term newborns because of its potential benefits for growth and development.

Gentle whole body massage involves the use of the hands for tactile stimulation, slowly rubbing and stroking parts of the body or passive full range movement at the joints of the extremities.

La primera infancia (desde el nacimiento hasta los 8 años) es clave para lograr el máximo potencial de desarrollo en el ser humano. Este es el momento de la vida en el que el potencial de desarrollo de los niños y las niñas es más susceptible a los estímulos del entorno y a las experiencias tempranas, que influyen sobre el aprendizaje, la salud, el comportamiento y, a largo plazo, en las relaciones sociales del adulto y su bienestar.

Nurturing care starts before birth, when mothers and other caregivers can start talking and singing to the foetus.
After birth, the baby can recognize the mother’s voice. Early bonding is facilitated by skin-to-skin contact, breastfeeding and the presence of a companion to support the baby mother. These also build the foundations for optimal nutrition, quality interactions and care.