Child development is always an important part of a brand’s marketing to mom discussion and a topic that has been covered at many a M2Moms®-The Marketing To Moms Conference.  Which is why when this new data came our way, we knew we had to share this with you. Our friends at Circle of Moms (you may have met their CEO Ephraim Luft during last year’s M2Moms® as he led one of our lunch roundtable discussions) have some interesting new insight regarding Moms in the U.S. that could affect your marketing to mom strategies.  According to the results of their research, there appears to be strong regional differences in child development.  For example:

Solid Foods: Moms in the Northeast give their children solid food nearly two weeks — or 10% of the baby’s life — earlier than their peers on the West Coast.  While around 55% of moms in the South, Northeast, and Midwest have given their children solid food by age 18.5 weeks, just 39% of mothers on the Pacific Coast have done the same.

First Words: 40% of children in the South utter their first words by 7 months, compared to only 25% of Mountain state children.

Potty Training: Southern children are potty trained more than a month before kids in any other part of the country, while children in the Mountain states are late bloomers.

While it seems Southern children are early bloomers while those in the Mountain states are a little on the late side, in between, the order shifts quite a bit.  Midwestern children talk early and potty train late, while West Coast kids talk late and potty train early.

The research was gathered from the thousands of U.S. moms who use Circle of Moms’ Child Space to share their children’s milestones with friends and family.  Currently, more than 10% of the children born in the U.S. in the past three years have a Child Space on Circle of Moms, which allows them to pull some significant insight from the data.

What else affects your marketing to mom strategies?  Mark your calendars now to attend the 6th Annual M2Moms®-The Marketing To Moms Conference, October 27 & 28, 2010, at the Chicago Cultural Center.  Visit our website for additional information and to register, www.m2moms.com.