Baby Yoga

Babies love new experiences and one way to build strong bones and muscles is by gently manipulating and massaging their bodies using a form of yoga. This is not what we traditionally think of as yoga but uses various poses and beneficial stretching to improve flexibility.

It can be used by parents and grandparents, as well as childcare professionals, and has a wide range of benefits.

What is Baby Yoga?

The movements in baby yoga are very slow and gentle and they are designed to help the baby’s general wellness and healthy development. It is often combined with baby massage and is a skill that has been traditionally handed down for centuries through generations in areas like Asia and India.

It’s a more modern development in the West but has gained popularity in recent years and there is increasing research evidence for its health benefits. If you want a great way to bond with your baby, it’s a useful skill to learn.

The Benefits of Baby Yoga

There are several benefits for both parents and infants:

• The gentle movements and stretches are thought to play an important role in the physical and emotional development of a baby.
• It can give a new mum and dad more confidence in handling their baby.
• It helps breathing and digestion and can begin to help the baby develop fine motor control much earlier.
• It creates a stronger bond between parent and baby through the use of gentle touch, manipulation and eye contact.
• Combined with massage, baby yoga can be used to help with problems such as teething and colic and is ideal if your child is feeling fractious.

When to Use Baby Yoga

Baby yoga is usually begun when your child is over 6 weeks old – by this age, they are starting to get better control of their neck muscles and are more stable.

It’s important to have a warm room without any draughts and few distractions. You may want to put some music on to accompany the yoga session. For relatively new babies, the moves and manipulations are generally slow and very, very gentle.

Combining Baby Yoga with Baby Massage

Learning baby massage at the same time as baby yoga makes sense as they are often used interchangeably. You can stroke the baby’s legs, for instance, and then gently bend them at the knee towards the chest.

As the baby gets older, this sort of practice can help encourage activities such as rolling and crawling earlier. It’s also great for stimulating baby’s awareness of their own body and what he or she is capable of.

Register For Our Baby Massage Course Today

Learning baby massage and yoga and using it regularly is very fulfilling and has many health and wellbeing benefits. Our short baby massage course is for childcare professionals as well as mums and dads and includes simple yoga techniques that are excellent for development.

We offer in-person courses through the London School of Childcare which are usually held at The Wesley Hotel near Euston Station. For those further afield, we also run virtual classes online where you can learn all the techniques for baby massage and yoga that you need.

Would you like to find out more? Check out our baby massage course today.