Even the most relaxed parents harbour secret longings for their offspring to fulfil their mental and creative potential. We try not to, but spend a lot of time comparing junior’s performance with the children of our friends - when did they roll over, first grasp a toy, recognise a face? Watching your child develop is the richest of experiences.

Your child’s brain comes equipped with a staggering 100 billion brain cells - that’s 100,000,000,000! All these brain cells reach their full potential when they lay down connecting pathways - a process called arborization. And the majority of these vital connections are made AFTER BIRTH. Each nerve is capable of sprouting up to 20,000 branches - it is this that makes the human brain the remarkably complex and integrated web that is unique amongst all the creatures of the planet. The first two years of a child's life are the most crucial in terms of creating that potential.

In addition to giving your child every opportunity and a loving environment to help him develop his mental faculties, you have another powerful tool to help develop his brain power to it’s maximum - the food he eats.

Your child’s 100 billion active brain cells enable him to hear, see, taste, smell, feel, touch, talk, walk, think and write. These are complex tasks and the cells need plenty of nourishment to work efficiently and speed messages around the brain and the body. To do this they are surrounded by up to a further 900 billion other cells that nourish and sustain the brain. The brain - only 2 lbs of delicate software - uses a massive 30% of total available energy.

Zinc is one of the most essential nutrients for mental health, and is needed to help build those neuron links. In fact it is critical for any anabolic, or growing, process - and guess what your child is doing at such a fast and furious rate from birth onwards? Foods rich in zinc include sardines, chicken, small quantities of red meat, cucumber, carrots, oats, berries, brown rice, buckwheat, nuts and seeds.

Iron is very important for the increase in size of brain cells at this early stage. However, whilst spinach is a good source of iron, it is not very absorbable. More absorbable sources include a small amount of red meat, eggs, brown rice, mushrooms, broccoli, kale and green peas.

Oily fish provide a rich source of ‘essential’ fats that are intimately involved in building brain potential. The brain is actually 60% fat, and the types of fats in your child’s diet directly affects the availability of building blocks for the brain. Oily fish include mackerel, salmon, sardines, tuna, pilchards, and shark amongst others. Research has consistently shown that the Japanese are, on average, 6 IQ points brighter than their American counterparts - until they emigrate to the USA and stop eating oily fish in favour of the Standard American Diet (SAD!).

Fruits are high in potassium, needed for optimal brain functioning. Half a banana a day will provide the potassium your baby needs. Other particularly rich sources are rye, maize, lentils, peas, molasses and watermelon.

Unfortunately you will also need to take evasive action against some of the dangerous pollutants in our environment. Lead is particularly worrying as it is a ‘neurotoxin’, literally poisoning the nervous system. Luckily, if you follow the advice about zinc you are already reducing the absorption of lead as they oppose each other. In addition to the heavy metals (lead, cadmium from cigarettes, excess copper and mercury) many chemicals, of which there are about 60,000 in our environment, 3000 of which are food additives, have an effect on the nervous system - so the best advice is to avoid them wherever reasonable and practical. Think seriously about buying organic food if possible and not using household chemicals to excess. A diet rich in vitamin C (fresh fruits), calcium (ground seeds) and pectin (apples) will all help to detoxify any residues that do build up - an organic apple a day really does help to keep the doctor away.

In my experience a well nourished child on a nutritionally sound diet is a happy and calm child - often boisterous, but not hyperactive. In addition to hyperactivity there is a category called Attention Deficit Disorder and the two are often lumped together. ADD will often be treated with a drug called Ritalin, a stimulant which, paradoxically, drugs children into a soporific state. I believe that nutrition ought to be the first port-of-call for any concerned parent, before resorting to serious drugs to sedate a child. A study published in the Lancet concluded that 82% of hyperactive children treated by diet alone improved significantly and a third of them returned to completely normal behaviour. These results were then confirmed in further studies.

The first questions to ask are: is the child truly hyperactive or just more active than you think is ideal? Does he just have a shorter than usual attention span? Is he looking for attention? Is he bored? He may not be hyperactive at all. A key pointer to look out for is to determine whether your child is capable of sitting still for periods of time, possibly playing quietly or concentrating on small, focussed tasks. If he does this on occasions, then he is probably just boisterous the rest of the time. You may find that his energy spurts happen to coincide with when you are feeling drained of energy making it seem worse than it is. There are many possible contributing factors to hyperactivity, but these are the main nutritional problems to look out for:

• Sugar is a likely source of the problem, and frequently this is all that needs to be addressed. It is certainly the one item on which to be non-negotiable if your child is showing signs of hyperactivity. Hyperactivity is often only a reaction to a sudden burst of sugar - watch a tired child go over the top half-an-hour after a soft drink and you will see why. Avoid all sources of sugar and instead use fresh fruits to sweeten dishes and as snacks and desserts.

• Food additives and colourings are the next most likely contributory factors. In particular, the yellow colouring, Tartrazine, has been implicated in hyperactivity. Avoid all prepackaged foods that may contain such additives.

• Essential fats from sources such as evening primrose oil and fish oils are often deficient, particularly in boys who are overactive or hyperactive.

• Salicylates are naturally occurring chemicals, related to aspirin, which are found in many fruits and some vegetables. They seem to be involved in some children's hyperactivity. The Feingold Diet was devised by Dr Ben Feingold and his books which are readily available give the full programme. If the previous three steps do not work, it is worth investigating this option.

• Food sensitivities may be involved, and wheat, in particular, is often a problem. Other grains should also be suspected. Sometimes allergies may be involved, for example pollen or animal dander (hair) allergies

• Heavy metal toxicity, especially from lead, aluminium or copper, can result in nervous disruption. If you suspect this you should follow the advice on page XXX and possibly consult a Nutritional Therapist who can conduct non-invasive laboratory tests. The mineral analysis will also give an indication of other mineral levels that are important for good nerve functioning, including zinc and magnesium levels.

• A Nutritional Therapist can also evaluate if there are any amino acid imbalances via a specialised urine test - these play an important role in brain function and can be used to rebalance neuro-transmitters that may be out of synch. Hyperactive children may need a higher than normal protein diet as they metabolise more quickly, but this should be done under supervision in the case of a small child. Thyroid function needs to be considered as the child may have a slightly hyperactive thyroid, and this problem can often be helped by identifying food allergies and cutting out sugar, as in the steps above.

For more information on my book What Should I Feed My Baby? (published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson) Click here.