SUMMARY:

Babies, intrauterinely, have totally flexed extremities including the arms and legs
and even their abdomen. They only have limited range of motion to stretch and to
move. That is why upon the birth of the child you would also notice that their
arms are flexed like their legs.

A yoga teacher, Amy Stone, wrote about how early movement can benefit a child
due to her curiosity about her own baby.

However, what are the benefits of a baby from yoga?

First of all, it can help in the growth and development of a child because the
primary stimulus for a child’s development is when they learn from adults and
they can gain higher confidence in doing task like sitting, crawling and walking.
Also, they could have good interaction and relationship with people especial to
their parents. Another benefit is they learn how to trust people. According to Erik
Erickson’s stages of development, learning trust is the basis of socio-emotional
development.  The physical contact of a loving adult fosters trust and starts baby
on the lifelong journey of learning about relationships—to one's self, to others,
and to the world. This contact can also ease a young child's nervous system
while bolstering his immunity, circulation, and physical growth.  Such yoga
classes allow parents a place to focus, relax, and enjoy movement with their
children, under the guidance of an educated yoga teacher and also serve a
bonding time for the whole family.

Staying very close to an infant who is younger than four months of age will be
most effective in early yoga practice since some babies takes a little longer in
being comfortable with the arms of their loving parents. Nevertheless, it can still
help especially when babies engaged in yoga classes are on their parent’s
abdomen. But, some say parents are afraid to put their child on their belly for
some reason that this may cause sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as said
by a registered nurse. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics
encourages parents to put babies on their bellies during waking hours. Playing
and exploring the world from this position is essential to a baby's development.
Muscle development in an infant starts from head to toe: control of neck muscles
comes first, followed by control of the torso and, finally, the muscles of the legs
and this can lessen the chance for injury. Two common yoga poses are
advisable for babies, Bridge and Downward Facing Dog.

Doing yoga moves with a baby will launch her education about relationships, eye
contact, intentional movement, gentle touch, and the enhancement of voice and
breath add to her overall experience and family bonding too.
REACTION:

In the first place, I have never tried yoga so it was a nice thing to know that even
babies can engage in such activity and benefit a lot from it. This article opened
my eyes on how different activities during infancy can affect their development
and their future as well. Not only babies have a lot of benefit from yoga but also
their parents or even ordinary people.

RECOMMENDATION:

I recommend to future researchers to find out more affective ways of helping a

child in their developmental needs.

I recommend to the nursing profession to be aware of that developmental stages

of children to provide more appropriate interventions and care.

I recommend to the general public, especially parents, to try to exercise infant

because not only the infant can benefit from it but also you by having a good
relationship with your babies.

SOURCE:

http://www.yogahejournal.com/lifestyle/1648