Benefits of Yoga for Toddlers – Best Baby Yoga Exercises

All parents know about the benefits of gymnastics and massage for babies. The advantages of gymnastics lie in air baths, in muscle activity, and in precious contact with mom. But if everyone knows about traditional gymnastics for crumbs, then baby yoga is still a novelty that confuses and even scares parents.

Is yoga good for newborns? How can a mom help her baby become more flexible and healthy? Experts from COLADY.

See also: The benefits of training on fitball for a newborn.

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Baby yoga by Françoise Friedman – what is yoga for newborns?

The foundation of the practice for children, known today as baby yoga, was laid by Françoise Friedman, who founded the Birthlight school, which includes not only yoga for newborns, but also yoga for expectant mothers, aqua yoga etc.

The benefits of babyyoga:

• General improvement and strengthening of the newborn.
• Maintaining (restoring) the balance between relaxation and physical activity.
• Removal of increased muscle tone and their correct development.
• Improving immunity.

Peculiarities:

• Practice safety (professional certified methodology).
• Asana-based movements.
• Close interaction of mother and child.

The main rules and principles of baby yoga

• Classes with a crumb should be carried out exclusively professional instructor (a yogi or yoga therapist who has been successfully practicing for at least 2 years) or by the mother herself under his strict control.
• Active activities can be started from the moment how the baby begins to hold his head on his own… Light exercise can be started from the first hours of life. In the case of caesarean, after the healing of the stitches.
• Asanas should be performed only when the baby is calm and relaxed. 1.5 hours (minimum) after feeding…
• Baby cry or change in skin color – an alarm signal for mom about a mistake made during exercise.
• Classes always start gradually, eventually moving on to a full range of exercises, based on the needs of the child.
• Occupations against the will of the crumbs are unacceptable. If the baby resists, is capricious, cries – classes should be stopped.
• Choosing an instructor, pay attention to the availability of a certificate and corresponding education. Go to an orientation session. Study the communication methods of the instructor and determine the degree of your trust in him – how skillfully he answers the questions, whether he is suspicious, how he behaves with children, whether he asks about the mother’s birth, the child’s injuries and his health.
• In baby yoga, sudden movements and abrupt changes in body position are prohibited.… Classes are soft and only with those exercises that do not cause discontent in the crumbs.

See also: Swimming for newborns – when and how to start classes?

Yoga for newborns – exercise video

Benefits of baby yoga for newborns

Baby yoga classes are not only a pleasant pastime for parents and their babies. This an opportunity to relax, get to know your child better and create opportunities for his healthy development.

The benefits of yoga for toddlers

• Ability to avoid scoliotic disorders (no load on the spine during exercise).
• Normalization of sleep and digestion.
• Effective prevention of colic.
• Strengthening all muscles.
• Development of all body systems.
• Learning to interact with others.
• Rapid healing of birth injuries of the mother and treatment of postpartum stress of the baby.
• Formation of correct posture.
• Activation of the simplest reflexes already in the first days after birth.
• Effective help with increased intracranial pressure, birth trauma, neck problems, dislocation of the hip joint, hypo- and hypertonicity of the muscles.
• Stimulation of the work of internal organs.
• Saturation of the brain with oxygen.

When yoga is contraindicated in newborns

• At increased intracranial pressure inverted poses are contraindicated for the baby.
• Lack of professionalism or wrong approach to training can do a lot of harm instead of the expected benefit (often traumatologists have to take crumbs of “yogis” with dislocations and even fractures).
• Even if mom practices yoga herself, categorically you should not do yoga with your baby without the supervision of an instructor, and even more so – to twist the child into asanas, because such “enthusiasm” can have serious consequences. You need to understand that many positions are simply not suitable and are often even contraindicated for a particular baby.
• The use of certain poses depends solely on from the individual characteristics of the crumbs, and the decision is made only by the instructor.
• Contraindications for baby yoga are injuries, various skin diseases and cerebral palsy.… In case of torticollis, hypo- and hyper tone, disorders in the formation of the hip joints, the exercise program is selected strictly individually.

The Colady.ru website reminds you: by doing your own lessons with the baby, you take full responsibility for improper adherence to the baby yoga technique. In order not to harm your baby, do baby yoga with an experienced instructor, and be sure to get a pediatrician’s recommendation before class!