From young tykes to pre-teens, to adults and even seniors, it has been found to be not only an enjoyable activity that can improve the individual, it is also something that provides significant health benefits. Did you know, however, that “yoga for everyone” has now come to include babies as young as six months old?
That’s right, more and more centers are opening their doors to welcome what can be considered their youngest practitioners, in the form of those adorable babies. Understandably, parents are going to be wary about this. After all, yoga is a very independent workout requiring focus and meditation. How can you expect cute babies, who can hardly crawl from point A to B, to be able to do those poses?
Yoga For Babies
Because of the limited physical capacities of babies, given that their joints and muscles are still tender, the poses are all designed to be executed gently, and with the help of the parents. Obviously, you cannot expect a six-month old baby to be doing sun salutations by themselves.
Sing A Song Along
Instructors advice parents to sing a baby song while doing the movements on the baby. This is to guide the parent with the rhythm and pace. Because they are working with babies, the stretches should be very gentle and not fast-paced for the child.
Massage And Bonding
Tthe main point of doing yoga on babies is to help facilitate the development of their balance, limbs and joints, and the improvement of their blood circulation. It has also been said that knees to chest poses aid in relieving the baby from tummy upsets.
The biggest benefit to this, however, is that the baby is effectively massaged as well. This aids in improving sleep for the little tot, as well as improving their over-all disposition. Most of all, the time spent doing yoga on the baby is also time spent bonding with them. The proximity to the parent allows this parent-child bond to be nourished, thereby improving the quality of the relationship with the baby.
Should you want to find out more about what yoga can really do for your baby, it would be advisable for you to read a yoga blog to be better informed.
