Count Your Baby’s Head-Lifts for Physical and Mental Exercise

One of the first things that your baby will need to learn to do is lift his or her head. This is an important skill because it allows the baby to visually explore the surroundings, and it provides crucial exercise for the baby’s undeveloped neck, arm, and chest muscles.

You can help your baby develop his or her muscles with a simple game that will provide physical and mental exercise. Here’s how to play the Head-Lift Game

Find a comfortable space on a carpet or mat. Put your baby on his or her chest and position his or her elbows and hands on the floor in a comfortable pushup position. Lie on your chest in front of the baby, facing the top of your baby’s head.

Call to your baby. The baby should push up, lift his or her head off of the floor, and face you. As soon as your baby lifts his or her head off of the floor, start counting enthusiastically. As soon as your baby’s head touches the floor again, stop counting.

Let your baby rest for a few seconds, and call your baby again. As soon as your baby lifts his or her head off of the floor again, restart the count at one.

Continue counting, stopping, and restarting in this manner. Eventually, your baby will recognize the speech patterns of your counting and will realize that the head-lifts are influencing your actions. This sense of influence will give your baby motivation, and your baby should begin trying to hold his or her head up longer each time you start a count just to see how high you will go.

Over several days, you will notice that your baby’s strength is increasing rapidly. Once your baby can hold his or her head up long enough for you to count to one hundred, you will know that your baby has gained some valuable neck and upper-body strength and has had a solid introduction to speech patterns and numbers. Best of all, your baby will have gained a sense of accomplishment and a lot of face time with an encouraging coach.