＊ 市场调查发现本书的目标读者是即将成为父母亲的人（超过已经成为父母亲的人）
手机和脚踏车真的会谋杀精子吗？怀孕的女人真的会变笨吗？暴力的电玩游戏真的会导致侵犯式行为吗？糖真的会让孩子太兴奋吗？有什么比欢迎一个新生命到世界里更奇妙的事吗？
这本书事关于人类发展的奇迹，并回答了我们时常和身边亲朋好友之间讨论的议题。现在，你们终于有答案了。作者Dr. Andrew Whitehouse针对十三个怀孕以及育儿神话：从穿三角内裤是否会影响精子的健康，到怀孕的妈妈是否真的会变笨，到孩子的虚构朋友，到暴力电玩游戏的影响 等等。他结合了现代育儿的真实故事、历史传下来的故事以及科学研究来解答所有的疑问。作者可以安抚所有担心的父母亲或者即将或者希望成为父母亲！
… a genuinely fascinating look at some of the most interesting myths and truths around pregnancy and babies.
— PRACTICAL PARENTING
关于作者：
Andrew Whitehouse是The University of Western Australia的Telethon Institute for Child Health Research最高教授（Winthrop Professor）。他目前正在指导一个研究团队研究自闭症的起因以及以及治疗。他的作品引起世界媒体关注，在《时代》杂志、《纽约时报》、CNN、BBC以及其他媒体做过专题。他在2011年收到Western Australian Tall Poppy of the Year奖；2012年入围威望的Eureka奖；2013年被《西澳大利亚》报被称为“需要被受瞩目”的100人之一。他在Curtin University受到语言病理学的训练，之后在University of Western Australia取得心理学的博士学位。接下来他在英国牛津大学担任Scott Family Junior研究院，2009年回到澳大利亚。
http://health.thewest.com.au/news/1075/busting-five-childhood-myths
PARENTING ADVICE
Busting five childhood myths
KRISTEN WATTSNovember 06, 2013
The birth of a baby is as much perplexing as it is joyous. There’s so much to learn in so little time, often with the added handicap of sleep deprivation to contend with.
Advice flows from every direction and the unsubstantiated answers to parenting questions, ranging from the implications of immunisation and artificial colourings to the long-term effects of supplying a baby with a dummy, saturate the internet.
Andrew Whitehouse, of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, has drawn on a combination of history and research to give parents an insight into some of the most commonly circulated myths in his book Will Mozart Make My Baby Smart?.
Will Mozart make my baby smarter?
In what seems like a desperate bid to improve a child’s chance of success in life, thousands of parents around the globe have played Mozart to their babies, both in and out of the womb.
Professor Whitehouse says the idea that classical music, and more specifically Mozart, could make a baby smarter stemmed from a study that looked at the performance of undergraduate university students.
“After the students listened to a certain sonata for 10 minutes, they performed eight or nine points better in an IQ test,” he said.
“This study absolutely took the world by storm and it was published in a prestigious journal, people went mad for it. In fact the theory was so popular that the Governor of Georgia wanted every mother to receive a free CD of classical music in order to promote their child’s intelligence.”
Alas, study after study tried without success to replicate the results of the original study and the scientific world became increasingly confused by the situation.
“Finally there was a breakthrough when a review paper looking at all the results combined was put together and researchers noticed that several studies had found that it wasn’t Mozart that was having a positive effect on IQ, it was actually country and western, rock’n’roll and other types of music.”
The Verdict
“What is accepted is it is not Mozart that is making people smarter, it is music in general,” Professor Whitehouse said. “For centuries we have known that humans are exceedingly drawn to music and now we also know that it focuses us. It helps increase our concentration and that made people perform better on their IQ tests." Professor Whitehouse said there had never been studies on Mozart being played to foetuses.
Are firstborns always smarter?
Professor Whitehouse said the first person to study this idea was Charles Darwin’s cousin, Sir Francis Galton, who realised in the late 19th century that high achievers in London were more likely to be the first born in their family.
This led him to believe that the firstborn child in any family was more likely to be smarter than his or her siblings and go on to be a leader.
“This idea took hold and quickly around the world there was somewhat a belief that firstborns were more likely to be prime minsters and last-borns were more likely to be jokers and comedians,” Professor Whitehouse said.
He said the theory was backed up by a comprehensive study of army recruits which found that firstborns tended to be smarter than their siblings by a couple of IQ points.
“After that there were a lot of fancy studies and one of the best of them looked at kids who were adopted.
“Essentially what we have found is there really does seem to be a very small IQ boost for firstborns and the reason we think this exists is not because they are naturally born more intelligent but more because firstborns are likely to be put in a position of responsibility when their siblings come along and this develops brain function.”
He said studies of twins had shown conclusively that intelligence was determined not just by genetics but also by interaction with the environment.
Professor Whitehouse said the final piece of the puzzle related to the way parents treated their youngest children.
“Last-born children, on the other hand, are the non-conforming rebels, unbridled by weary parents and free to explore their creative sides,” he says in the book.
“The comedic line-up of Jim Carrey, Drew Carey, Eddie Murphy, Rosie O’Donnell and Billy Crystal are all the youngest of their respective broods. Finally middle children are the negotiators, stuck between the leader and the rebel, these children must rely on their charisma (Madonna) and charm (Princess Diana) to get by in the world.”
The Verdict
Firstborns often are slightly smarter than their siblings but not because they are born that way. Rather they’ve had more opportunities to learn and grow from the environment. Professor Whitehouse, widely regarded as an extremely high achiever, is a twin and born in the middle of his siblings, who are also high achievers. “While birth order may have a small influence on IQ and personality in some families, this effect is dwarfed in importance by the quality of the home environment,” he writes.
Do imaginary friends need a party invitation?
Just after the turn of the last century, Benjamin Spock, the eldest of six children, was born into an upper-middle-class family.
According to Professor Whitehouse, Spock had a difficult relationship with his father but a close bond with his mother and after studying arts at Yale he enrolled at the New York Psychoanalytic Clinic. In 1933, he opened his own practice and quickly became known for his warmth and charm.
He began witnessing on a daily basis the issues facing parents of the time and as a result he published a book which Professor Whitehouse says single-handedly changed the way parents around the Western world raised their children.
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care espoused a more emotional style of parenting, emphasising the need for flexibility on the part of the parent as well as highlighting the importance of listening to children and appreciating their individual differences.
Professor Whitehouse says that while Spock was right on many things, he also made a couple of mistakes which had dire consequences.
“He was actually the one who said children should be placed on their stomach to sleep,” Professor Whitehouse said. “He suffered a huge fall from grace when people realised the seriousness of that mistake. One of the other mistakes he made was in saying that imaginary friends were the product of a damaged mind.
“But the idea really stuck and for a long time parents had the belief that imaginary friends needed to be banished.”
Professor Whitehouse said modern research had revealed that children who had imaginary friends had exactly the same behaviour and IQ as their peers and imaginary friends did not appear to cause any damage to a child whatsoever.
“There is actually research now to show that imaginary friends can help boost a child’s development in terms of practising social skills and language.”
Professor Whitehouse said firstborn children tended to most commonly befriend figments of their imagination and this was most likely because they were lonely.
“When science has looked at where these imaginary friends most commonly appear it is most at home. When the child gets to school the imaginary friends tend to disappear.”
The Verdict
Imaginary friends should be welcomed into the family. Professor Whitehouse said about 30 to 60 per cent of preschool-aged children were known to have imaginary friends. He said these relationships were not detrimental in any way, particularly when parents took time to ensure their child developed real relationships.
Does sugar turn your angel into a little devil?
According to Professor Whitehouse, most estimates put the annual consumption of sugar in developed countries at 30-40kg per person.
While the ill-effects of eating too much sugar, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay, are widely known, most parents also believe that sugar consumption causes hyperactivity.
“It is an accepted part of child rearing that you don’t give your child sugar at certain times of the day and really they should only be allowed to have it on special occasions,” Professor Whitehouse said.
He said that after attending several children’s birthday parties as an adult, he was convinced the theory was correct.
“You look at children and they are eating lots of cake and you basically know that they are going to go bonkers,” he said.
“But interestingly, the science shows this is just not true.”
He said randomised trials had been conducted in which half the children were given sugar and the other half were given an artificial substance.
“There was no difference between those who took sugar and those who took aspartame,” he said. “And perhaps more telling was that there was no difference between those who took the substance and those who didn’t take anything at all.”
He said the sugar myth all started with studies, conducted in the 1980s, which showed a clear link between sugar consumption and hyperactivity.
“The problem was that research went around the world rapidly and everyone started believing it but the study was loaded with lots of holes and there were problems with it left, right and centre. When those problems started emerging, no amount of science could shift the view that children went bonkers after a bit of sugar.
“We are all absolutely certain that sugar does cause hyperactivity and no evidence to the contrary will shift that belief.”
He said one study provided a group of boys with a dose of artificial sweetener. Half of their mothers were told they had been given a placebo and the other half of mothers were told their sons had been given sugar. All the mothers were then asked to play with their sons and rate their behaviour.
The women who were told their sons had been given sugar were more likely to report their sons were hyperactive.
Professor Whitehouse said the study proved expectations affected the ratings rather than the actual behaviour.
The Verdict
Sugar does not cause hyperactivity. But there are still many health-related reasons not to have it in big quantities. “Big amounts of sugar are dangerous for many other reasons but we know for certain that it doesn’t cause hyperactivity,” Professor Whitehouse said.
Is your baby wired for sound?
Following on from the idea that foetuses could hear and respond to music in the womb, researchers examined the acoustic cries of 30 newborn babies in France and 30 newborn babies in Germany.
Professor Whitehouse said, astonishingly, they found clear differences between the cries of both groups of babies.
“The French babies produced a rising melody cry and the German babies produced a falling melody,” he said. “And perhaps even more surprising is that they were using the same patterns you see in language and more particularly in their own native language. The newborns were screaming the singsong pattern of their native language.”
Professor Whitehouse said a pile of research had proved that foetuses could actually hear in the womb.
One of the earliest of these was when German paediatrician Albrecht Peiper recorded the responses of foetuses who were exposed to a shrill honking horn sound.
After the initial honk, many of the unborn babies distinctly kicked but after repeated exposure, there was a decline in response.
Peiper concluded that they could hear but had become used to the sound of the horn.
Further studies went on to prove that foetuses responded to music in the womb and that they also remembered it when they were born.
The Verdict
There is good evidence that babies can not only hear sounds and music in the womb but they also develop a response to those sounds and later remember the sounds played to them. “Essentially what the crying German and French newborn babies showed us was that they had been exposed to language and music in the womb for nine months and they had been listening and quite clearly hearing and when they were born they reproduce the language patterns they had heard for all that time. Science has revealed that even in the womb, humans can hear and remember tunes, an astonishing achievement that says so much about the remarkable capacities of our brains, even in the first throes of existence, and about how central music is to the human condition.”