Yes, I am attending another baby shower very very soon! SO again, I was on the hunt for something unique… I have my few local businesses that I return to time after time, but I do enjoy finding some new things that I absolutely love & I am sure that my friends will as well.
I have read so much about the benefits of black & white for baby, & often gift little zebras from the RareBear Project or other fun finds that are black & white – along with adorable outfits & really anything else I can find that speaks to me for the parents-to-be. Then when I saw these gorgeous products from Brainy Baby I knew I had to place an order & reach out to them to see if I could find out a little more about their business. So, read on if you are as excited as I am…
Your name: Lara-Anne Derbyshire
Business name: Brainy Baby Development
Social media handles: Facebook & Instagram
Tell me a bit more about what you do: I am a designer and brand strategist and work at an ad agency. I have my BTech Degree in Graphic Design and my BA Honours Degree in Psychology. In-between, I have done a number of short courses and aim to do at least one each year as I really believe strongly in life-long education and continually up-skilling yourself. And of course, I do love learning new things.
How did you get started & come up with this concept: I find myself always trying to solve problems or challenges and having completed my psychology studies, which included early childhood development, and understanding the importance of developing your mind & ensuring you stimulate the mind and practise good mental health even as an adult, I further realised that many new moms were not fully aware of the importance of infant visual stimulation from birth and what they needed to expose their little ones to or how. So, naturally I wanted to use my knowledge and my skills to create something beautiful, practical and something that would educate and provide a platform for sharable knowledge. Brainy baby became the creative outlet for that problem solving and the desire to design something for good practical use.
So, putting design, practicality and psychology together and the idea of brainy baby was born. I put the brainy baby logo into the design of the cloth as I love the idea that this simple name in itself would tell people that this is for your child’s brain development – and the education would take it’s own course from there. This journey has been rather unsuspecting yet wonderful in how it has just grown. I had just five brainy baby visual stimulation cloths made up in March 2018 and the only reason I made 5 was for cost effectiveness – I didn’t really think that I was going to make any more and I was just going to give them to friends that were having little ones at the time – I just needed to get the idea out if my system … but when I got that first cloth I just got so excited and a couple of my friends saw them and thought it was a really good idea and so I started designing packaging that would show and describe the benefits of this as a “real” product and I then created an instagram page and one by one people started enquiring and giving really positive feedback and before I really realised it I had a brand on my hands From there is has grown, as has the range of products that I have added as the ideas have come.
Why is black & white so important for babies: Newborn babies are born with retinas that are not fully developed. Your retina helps you differentiate colour in the world around you, but a baby’s brand new retina can only detect high contrasts between black and white, or light and dark objects. While adults can distinguish the differences between hundreds of different shades and colours, a newborn baby can only distinguish between stark contrasts such as black & white. This critical phase is from around 0-5 months old, before they are able to start seeing other colours and identify other visual stimulus.
Babies crave input to stimulate their brain development and the brain builds itself by forming connections. Of all the five senses, vision takes the longest to develop but it also has the highest impact on the brain. The more visual stimulation your baby receives…the more her neural network will expand and connect. A well connected brains result in a brainy baby! With continual stimulation, your baby’s retina, optical nerve, and visual parts of the brain will thrive from the use of the Brainy Baby Stimulation Cloth’s high contrast visuals.
Research shows that this type of infant stimulation will help calm and soothe your baby as well as increase concentration skills, enhance natural curiosity and stimulate the creation of brain cell connections.
What are the different products that you sell:
The Brainy Baby Visual Stimulation Cloth
The Brainy Baby Tiny Taglet
The Brainy Baby Dinky Dangles
The Brainy Baby Mama Planner
The Brainy Baby Mama & Papa Personalised Mugs
What is the most popular product: The Original Brainy Baby Visual Stimulation Cloth
How can people order from you: Just send a direct message and via any of the platforms below & I will respond with all the info you need.
Facebook
Instagram
WhatsApp: 0723914603
Email: brainybabydevelopment@gmail.com
Brainy Baby ships to all major centres around South Africa within approximately 2-3 working days.
Why would you recommend these as a gift for a baby shower: Brainy Baby is such a lovely gift to give a mama-to-be as it’s something unique and focuses on development, which is not always easy to find in terms of an affordable & extremely useful gift for a newborn. Moms also love its trendy design and that as cute as it looks, it is equally practical in that it can be used anywhere, folds up easily to take anywhere, can’t break, can be washed and the soft cloth it’s made from means it acts as a soothing sensory blankie too – so the new baba will get months and months of use out of this brainy little gift! It’s one of those must have items…
Why do you encourage people to support local: We have SO much to offer here in South Africa in terms of brilliant and creative products out there & it’s wonderful to be able to support these brands and small businesses that are built and fuelled by passion and purpose.
Quote you live by: Don’t be afraid to just try… and use the God-given talents you have been blessed with because they will give your life real purpose and joy.
I placed an order as a gift for the next baby shower & when it arrived I immediately removed it from the packaging & had a look at the actual product for myself, but feel it running between my fingers. And I adore it! It is a great idea, & I hope it will be treasured by the family when they receive it.
Next time you are looking for a unique gift for a baby shower, or even for yourself, please pop over to Brainy Baby’s social media & have a look for yourself. They are just fab!
