You Are Your Babies First and Most Important Teacher

 

I wrote an article recently about how to “teach” your baby. It is important to remember that you are your child’s first and most important teacher. A role that you have to keep for their entire lives. I entitled the article “Tummy-Time and Other Teachable Moments” and while the article is about milestones for your baby’s first year and what you can do to help them reach them in my opinion tummy-time is probably the single most important one. And it is the one that seems to get neglected the most.

Why does such an important activity get neglected by parents? Because most babies absolutely HATE tummy time. Until they get used to it tummy time will bring on the most heart-wrenching cries and fat tears in the littlest baby’s eyes. No one likes to listen to their baby cry. It puts us in distress to hear them in pain. And the truth is it does cause them a bit of pain. Think about when you exercise and it’s something you’re not accustomed to. You are using muscles in a way they aren’t used to and the next day they are usually quite sore. It’s the same for babies. Tummy time forces them to use muscles that they are not used to using and it is uncomfortable.

But it is necessary and extremely important to the development of your baby. Tummy time works and builds the muscles required as the foundation for all your baby’s milestones in the first year of their life. Head control, neck strength, arm and shoulder strength, and trunk strength. All of that muscle building will lead to rolling over, sitting up, crawling, pulling up, and eventually walking.

Tummy time can start as early as a few days old with proper supervision. NEVER LEAVE A TUMMY-TIME INFANT UNSUPERVISED UNTIL THEY ARE ADEPT AT LIFTING THEIR HEAD AND ROLLING OVER. And don’t be sad when your baby protests the work, you must be strong and teach your child that sometimes they have to do things they don’t want to do to become healthy and strong! You can do it, you are a powerful and loving parent who only wants to do what is best for their child.

Check out "Tummy-time and Other Teachable Moments" on my pages, to learn more about milestones for baby's first year.