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.

Baby Gyms Provide a Workout for the Brain

A baby gym normally consists of arches that extend over a small cushioned play mat. The gym sits on the floor and provides you with a comfortable and stimulating place to lay your baby when you are unable to hold him or her. (The Tiny Love Gymini is one of the best-known baby gyms.)

The important feature of the baby gym is the arches. These arches generally have several holes that allow you to suspend toys over your baby. The suspended toys give your baby interesting objects on which to focus. This helps with the development of eyes and visual processing skills. The suspended toys also provide your baby with objects to bat around with his or her hands and feet. This helps the development of motor skills.

When selecting a baby gym, try to find one in black, white, and red. If you cannot find one with these colors, look for a gym with a lot of contrasting colors and bold patterns.

When setting up the baby gym, suspend the toys in locations where your baby is likely to hit or kick them by accident during normal movement. As your baby repeatedly bumps the suspended toys by accident, your baby will begin to realize that he or she has control over his or her environment, which is a major developmental breakthrough. If you watch carefully and are lucky, you will actually witness the precise moment that your baby realizes that he or she can manipulate objects by moving arms and legs.