Infant Exercise: Is It Necessary?

Now in todays active/healthy lifestyles everyone is into fitness and exercise.This idea has expanded to include infants. There are infant exercises now for parents to stimulate and strengthen their babies with. Many parents are looking into swimming, yoga and developmental play class to ward off future obesity problems when their infants turn into children.

For newborn infant exercise techniques like massage, passive exercise and holding an infant in various positions are used. Today you can find a mother-infant yoga class, swimming classes and play/exercise classes for mothers and babies. In addition to mother doing the yoga poses, so does the baby. The mothers guide their babies through short sessions of poses. Mothers are guided under the direction of a yoga teacher to bend their babies legs, push their tiny knees to their chests, make hip circles, and touch one leg to their opposite hand. "Babies seem to like being manipulated and they are very flexible" are the response mothers give when asked about their yoga classes. Most of the infants swimming classes are for infants that are 6 months of age on up. They learn not to fear water and how to float before they actually swim. When the mother is not holding the baby, and following the instructors instructions, they are using the floating devices for the babies.

Medical experts are not totally convinced that infant exercise is necessary. Most medical experts feel infants get enough infant exercise with their natural development. The author of “ Baby Yoga” Francoise Barbira Freedman says that "Doing baby yoga and swimming does not make the baby fit, what it does is bond the baby with the mother." Medical experts do agree that does however instill the idea of exercise and health as part of a lifestyle early on with the baby.

With newborns and infants, the infants exercise or movements come from neuromuscular movements, which are for the most part reflexive in nature. Because there is a curiosity characteristic inborn in infants, along with the drive of self-sufficiency infants are motivated in various progressive activities. There is some scientific evidence that conditioned responses can be elicited from newborns. Every see a newborn put his hand to his mouth on the side and jesture like he wants a bottle to eat when he is hungry? I have. This does not necessarily mean however that programs conditioning early responses at the newborn level will make long-term developmental differences. Experts feel it is important to have stimulating environments for new borns. It has been shown that environments that offer no stimulation do impede a newborns development.

In terms of infant exercise, bones of newborn babies have a more possibility to bone trauma than children or adults. This is because from newborn up until a year or so they do not have bones that are ossified at their maximum potential yet. In terms of infant exercise infants do not have the capabilities in body strength and reflex to protect themselves from external forces. Also the parent has to be very aware upon doing infant exercise not to exceed the physical limitations of the infant with these structured exercise programs.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a safe, nurturing minimally structured play environment for infants. However here are some safe exercises you can do with your infant.Do the infant exercises gradually. Don’t force the infant. I would clear it with a pediatrician first and wait for at least 1 month to three months to incorporate exercises # 4, #6 and #8 on the list below. Those are the ones where the babies are propped up into sitting positions. But that is me as an experienced mother.

1. Place your infant on his or her stomach across your legs while you are in a sitting position. This encourages him or her to hold their head up and support their own weight with their hands.

2. With the infant in a prone position, laying forward on their back, place brightly colored objects a foot or two away to encourage reaching and grabbing.

3. Place the infant on a pad on their stomachs and encourage them to lift their legs and kick. This helps them lift their heads and legs.

4. Prop the infant in a sitting position and place a ball in front of them. Place both arms and hands on the ball and roll a little forward. This helps them learn to straighten their arms.

5. You can encourage the infant to learn how to bend and rotate their head by playing with their hand and feet while they are on their backs.

6. Place the infant in a sitting position between your legs. Support the head and the elbows while bring one arm forward to reach the opposite foot. After a while the baby will try and reach on his own.

7. While you are in a comfortable sitting position place the infant on their back with their feet on your chest. Bring their arms together until their hands are in front of their eyes.

8. Support your baby in an upright position to encourage balance and strength.

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