What a psychologist recommends doing daily for your baby’s development

When you have a baby, time can feel like it disappears in a blur of feeds, naps and nappy changes. Even though you want to do the best for your baby’s development, finding moments for quality interaction can often feel impossible.

When parents do get a spare minute, they may wonder what to do with their baby to make the most of that time. That’s why we’ve teamed up with psychologist Dr Eleanor Bryant, Associate Professor in Health Behaviour Psychology at the University of Bradford, to discover what really supports baby development and the answer might surprise you… a simple game of peekaboo.

A baby’s emotional and cognitive growth is how they begin to understand the world around them, build relationships and develop skills like attention, memory, communication and emotional regulation. It’s how babies learn to recognise feelings, build trust and make sense of their environment, all before they can even speak.

This growth starts from day one, shaped by the interactions they have with the people closest to them. Everyday activities like talking, singing, cuddling and playing help to build vital brain connections, supporting everything from language development to emotional resilience later in life.

Science shows that babies aren’t born with fully developed brains; they build them through relationships. Positive, responsive moments with parents and caregivers act like building blocks, strengthening neural pathways and creating a sense of safety and connection.

The good news? It doesn’t take expensive toys or long routines. Just a few minutes a day of eye contact, touch and attention can make a big difference. These shared moments help babies feel secure and understood, laying the foundation for confidence, learning and healthy relationships in the future.

Peekaboo is a classic game that parents across the country play with their babies but did you know it could be crucial for social, emotional and cognitive development?

Dr Eleanor Bryant explains to Nuby, “Spend the time engaged in face-to-face responsive interaction, such as talking, singing or playing simple games like peekaboo. These interactions promote serve-and-return communication, simple back-and-forth exchanges between caregiver and baby that stimulate brain pathways for communication and emotional regulation.”

Serve-and-return interactions, supported by Public Health England’s Start for Life Initiative, are a back-and-forth interaction between an adult and baby where you give your baby interaction and wait for them to respond. Serve-and-return interactions are shown to improve babies’ social and cognitive outcomes. They form the foundation for communication, emotional regulation and trust.

Dr Eleanor Bryant has shared four activities with Nuby that parents should incorporate into their babies' daily routine to support their emotional and cognitive growth:

1. Shared book reading

This is another form of serve-and-return interaction, helping babies learn to take turns, read emotional cues and build social understanding. The UK’s Healthy Child Programme highlights these moments as vital for early emotional regulation and communication.

2. Tummy time

NHS Start for Life guidance recommends regular tummy time from birth (supervised and short at first), as it helps babies develop neck, shoulder and arm strength needed for motor skills like crawling. It also improves sensory integration by giving babies different tactile and spatial experiences. Lack of tummy time has been linked to delayed physical and sensory development.

At Nuby we have a range of tummy time activity toys such as our Animal Adventures Tummy Time Roller, Penguin and Pals Play Gym and Penguin Tummy Time Mirror.

3. Baby massage

Baby massages improve infant sleep, reduce crying and strengthen parents' confidence and attachment, especially helpful in cases of postnatal depression. Studies like Underdown et al. (2006) support these benefits.

4. Sensory play

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework and Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) highlight sensory exploration, touching different textures, looking at bold colours or listening to music, as central to early cognitive development, fine motor skills and attention. Sensory play encourages curiosity and builds the brain’s processing capacity.

Dr Bryant continues, “These activities are powerful not because they require perfection but because they invite presence. What matters most is not whether a parent reads with perfect expression or uses special toys but that they’re attuned, engaged and consistent. From a psychological lens, these rituals create a predictable environment that enhances emotional regulation and reinforces parents' sense of agency and connectedness. Small acts of engagement accumulate into a strong developmental foundation.”

Even routine moments like feeding, changing or settling your baby can become opportunities to help them feel secure and understood.

Dr Bryant explains to Nuby, “As a psychologist, I see these micro-moments as some of the most untapped opportunities for connection. They are frequent, predictable and require no extra time, just intention. Turning a nappy change into a ‘chatty check-in,’ or feeding time into a quiet moment of mutual gaze and comfort, teaches a baby that their needs are noticed and valued.”

She adds, “Feeding, changing, settling for sleep, these aren’t just tasks. They’re opportunities to strengthen your relationship and build your baby’s sense of safety. Think of each routine as a mini conversation saying: I see you, I’m here, and I care. Over time, these repeated affirmations help wire the baby’s brain for resilience and trust, while reducing parental guilt about not ‘doing enough.’”

Finding a spare second, let alone a minute, in your day as a parent with a baby can feel like an impossible challenge.

That’s why we created the RapidTeam, our formula feeding dream team designed to save parents' precious time when making a bottle.

First, there’s RapidHot for instant, filtered boiling water at the touch of a button to your baby's exact feed size. Next is RapidCool, our portable baby bottle maker, which cools a feed in just two minutes* no more waiting around for kettles to boil or milk to cool. Last in the trio is RapidSterilise+, which sterilises your RapidCool in just one minute, using UV to zap away 99.9% of bacteria.

You don’t need to overhaul your routine, try incorporating one of these simple activities into your day and watch your baby’s growth and development flourish.

*Time varies between 2-5 minutes, depending on the size of the feed.