Baby Exercises

(Written by Mombi)

I usually do these twice a day with Griffin, first thing in the morning right after he’s eaten, and in the evening before Momai gets home from work after he’s eaten then. I do this after he eats so this doubles as help burping and he’s usually more receptive when he’s not hungry.

I like to combine both speech exercises with the physical ones, what we do ties face expression to voice and voice to physical movements. There are two stages I like to call ‘serious’ then ‘silly’ during serious I try to keep my face expressions as I would be speaking to a child trying to not make any funny faces to get his attention; silly time is when we play with our tongues big eyes mouth and raising our voice.

It usually takes anywhere from 10 to 20 min depending on how receptive and tired he is, I can tell if he’s had enough when he ‘fights’ against the muscle movements or starts to look away with disinterest.

After we’re done with serious and silly there is a quick massage of his muscles and joints, this he really enjoys and relaxes him after all the hype of exercise time.

Okay, so the exercises themselves, I don’t do these in any order so I’ll just list what we do during the time.

Big and Small – Laying down in front of you let him grab your thumbs and extend his arms out as wide as you can just stretching like wings and as you do so say biiiiiiiig then bring his hands back together to his chest while you say smaaaaaaaaall. If he resists with one arm just go with it, don’t force it too much.

Tall and Short – Same as Big and Small this time you’re going above his head, then flat down to his sides. With each movement tell him what you’re doing, Tall, then short. I try to not let him rotate his shoulders (in a swim type fasion) because that comes later, I try to encourage him to bend instead of rotate down.

Swim Forward and Backward – Just like a breast stroke you want to rotate his arms (slowly at first until they get used to it) and I like to count to ten, first forward then back. I tell him that we’re going forward then count as we swim, then switch to going back then count.

Left and Right – This is sitting up or laying down and his least favorite exercise because he has a favorite side to lay on. Exorsising his neck and shoulders to look in different directions is the goal, I use my palms on each side of his cheeks and say Left and wiggle my left index finger for a visual and then help him look to the left, I hold his head there for about ten seconds counting to ten slowly. Then do the same to the right and holding his head there for ten seconds.

Up and Down – Same as left and Right, this is a neck exercise and easier than Left and Right. I can usually just cup his chin and help support his head if it wobbles and say Up, and Down holding to a count of ten.

Jump – Now moving to lower body I grab his little feet and make him squat. I try to keep his knees as close together as his diaper and body allows so his body learns that Jump is different than the natural ‘oh, we’re changing the diaper now spread’. So jumping, I make him squat and count to ten then pull down in a mock jump. The holding for count of three feels like a build of energy and encourages him to push. After about 5 weeks he’s starting to push.

Swivel – This is again lower body and centers at the hips, this one is real quick again I say left one two three as I hold, then swivel right one two three as I hold in the other direction. I usually only don’t repeat this one.

Run Forward and Back - Lower body, pretty simple you want to simulate him running in place both forwards and backwards and I count to ten or twenty and at each change I tell him we’re going forward and back.

Now time for Silly time; this he loves and looks forward to and I’ll do with him through out the day. It’s Dancing with him while chanting or singing, My personal favorite happens to be “dance dance dance dance boogie boogie boogie boogie” while I move his arms in the old ‘cabbage patch’ style or just silly moving around. There are no repetitive motions here, just fun movement. I don’t try to stretch his neck or lower body during this time not until he’s sitting up.

Then a massage, it’s more like just squeezing his hands lower and upper arms, while he’s laying down if you roll your fingers over his spine then up to his neck you might giggle at the funny faces they make as they relax.

As Griffin develops more these will change quite a bit I’m sure, but so far I think these exercises will be good for 0 to 4 months (and beyond).

We'll videotape Griffin exercising and post it soon!