BABY MOVES #4

NOTE: Most guidelines are built for “birth at 40 weeks”. If your baby came early – it is recommended to “correct” or “adjust for due date”, specifically in movement. *Learn more about corrected age HERE.

Here are a few new things for the movement toolbox as we get into more complex and coordinated movement patterns. As always – look for ways to incorporate the sights, sounds, touch, language, and communications alongside those moves. Feathers make for a lot of fun.

Try This

Baby Sit Up Progressions

Continue the pull to sit while supporting only as much as the baby needs. At this point in the progression you may be able to slow down the entire movement to allow them to practice precise movement control. This is a supported movement, especially the seated part. Sitting typically follows rolling, and independent sitting for short periods comes around 7-8 months (on average).

*Watch for the baby anticipating the sit up by grasping your fingers tighter, tucking the chin a little, and flexing the arms and legs – just before the pull – as shown in the gif below. This shows that they are understanding and connecting the movement patterns by actively preparing the body for motion. This pulling up of the legs is also needed for rolling.

Baby Rolls

Rolling over is the first full body, goal-oriented movement. Around 4.5 months (on average) babies start crossing the midline more with arms and legs, while laying on their back and side. This is needed to roll over. Give it a try for yourself – lay on your back and see what it takes to roll over to your belly and back again.

Full mastery of tummy to back rolling takes until 6 or 7 months. Here are a few ways to help this along – and to break the complex movement into individual parts and sequences.

Start with a little side lying warm up – drop the legs, see if they resist or stop the drop. This builds inner leg strength.

Assist a half roll from back to side. Grab a good sized towel, blanket, or fabric and put it under the baby. Slowly raise one side while supporting the other to encourage rolling patterns. Watch for 1) the knee to come up and over, 2) the inside arm to bend and 3) the head and eyes to redirect to the rolling direction. *Seriously, if you are able to, get down and try a roll for yourself.

Repeat on the other side.
Do it again starting with the tummy down and roll to the side.
As coordination improves, work up to a full assisted roll from back to tummy, and from tummy to back. This one is your call, Coach! Assisted rolls help give practice for movement sequencing, and also helps give experience to the vision and motion systems in the brain for how the world changes during a roll.

Other ways to gently encourage rolling are helping the head initiate the turn from side lying to back lying. Rolling is heavily reliant on vision. Vision is often what motivates the baby to roll. Continue to use encouragement as they progress. Try grabbing their attention and having them track an object into a roll.

Most of the rolling motions for the next few weeks will be focused on the back to side and tummy to side moves. You can assist them through the transition as needed – using your coaching and play skills to keep the motivation up.

Standing Tall-ish

Support baby, under the armpits, in a standing position, high enough for the legs to extend fully. Pay attention to keeping their heels on the floor – heels are the first stability point from trunk to ground. Lower them slightly to assist them if heels are off the ground – some babies might want to go toes first. This helps them get experience with the sensation of weight bearing through extended legs into their heels. Many people do this naturally, but now you know what to look for and why.

Grasping and Reaching, Continued

Watch those fingers and hands and how movement changes. Two hands and single handed. Keep providing a variety of objects, large, small, with a variety of textures. Watch for how they learn to orient the hand to the object. Grasping is considered gross motor skills. Orienting and shifting around with the fingers are fine motor skills.

Get Outside

If you are in a place where you feel safe to venture out – take the movement tour outside. Get some sunlight, and give nature a feel.

Posture Check – for Dad and Mom

Being a parent is rough on the body. The bending over, holding the baby for long periods, favoring one side for baby holding, and doing odd movements related to parenting – are all a recipe for getting taken down. It takes just one dehydrated 2am feeding fatigue to put those sluggish muscles over the edge… Pee-a-boo… it’s Back Pain!

Pay attention to any aches and pains as they stack up and ask your partner how they are doing as well. This shows compassion (big plus in parenting!), but it will also create ways to support each other. Having one parent out of commission recovering makes keeping it all together that much more challenging. A pain free you let’s you be more you. On to Dad Moves…

If you have any concerns about movement development – contact your pediatrician.

DAD MOVES #2

We have to mention it. Consult your physician before changing your physical activity.

Stability of the human body comes from the trunk and from how we breathe. Babies anchor on it – give it a look – watch how they breathe and how the belly moves as they move. Over time, however, we get out of the habit of better breathing.

Dad Moves #1 (FD17) featured the Intro to Breath – Getting the Diaphragm Moving, courtesy of Alex Bunt, physical preparation coach for elite athletes. This is a foundation for building specialized performance.

Dad Moves #2 builds on this simple, yet critical foundation to help you get more from your breathing. In this video you can work to expand the rib cage and create more space for stability within the trunk. Here is the 4 Zone Expansion progression[YouTube, 5min 26sec] (or click image).

Practice this any time you have a few moments, though best to make it a focused part of the day. 3-5 minutes is all it takes. Some Dads find this best right when they wake to start the day. Some during play with the baby. Others while waiting for an email to load or sitting in a zoom meeting. Alex recommends this before any kind of warm up prior to physical activity, and also to close out busy days when you’ve been running around stressed.

Breathing pattern changes seem to happen in relation to how often you notice your breathing throughout the day. For some this may take a couple days, for others it may be 6 weeks to 6 months. Give it a try, let us know how it goes – and just remember: Expand don’t Elevate.

Building a Stronger Dad

The most important muscle you’ve probably never trained before – the diaphragm not only keeps us alive but it is involved in every movement. Considering our bodies are in constant motion and that we breathe 10,000 – 30,000 breaths per day, correct diaphragm function is pretty important.

The diaphragm is a thin domed-shaped muscle located directly below our chest; it connects to the breastbone, ribs, and spine, and separates our heart and lungs from the other organs in our abdominal cavity. This muscle moves down and flattens to help pull air into the lungs. It moves up and expands to drive air out on the exhale. A strong diaphragm reduces the effort to breathe.

While the diaphragm’s main function is inspiration – bringing air into the lungs – it also plays a critical role in stabilizing the core – as a muscle. Activity of the diaphragm in coordination with other muscles of the trunk occurs prior to any purposeful movement, that is, before you even know you’re going to move, the diaphragm is ready. Therefore, no movement can be optimal if our breathing isn’t correct – if the diaphragm isn’t aiding. So we better make sure we know how to use our diaphragm.

A properly functioning diaphragm moves down when you inhale and moves up when you exhale. During breathing, we know we’re using our diaphragm correctly when we can feel expansion in the torso during inhalation, as the diaphragm moves down and flattens, expanding outward to create space – our lower belly expands forward, our lower back expands backwards, and our ribs expand sideways. This expansion occurs without elevation or raising of the shoulders, chest, or ribs. During expiration, the torso returns to its resting state.

It’s this downward descent of the diaphragm along with abdominal expansion that activates our deep core muscles (muscle inside your trunk that you can’t see). The sequence of diaphragm descent and core muscle activation creates intra-abdominal pressure – a fancy name for air pressure inside the abdomen.

Imagine intra-abdominal pressure as a balloon inside your torso. When the diaphragm descends, it pushes down on that balloon, which increases the pressure inside of the balloon and results in the balloon pushing out in every direction.

Intra-abdominal pressure is the foundation of optimal movement; it not only protects our spine and ensures safe motion but also allows the core to become the ‘engine’ of force production. A well-functioning core provides the base for all limb movement and helps to generate and transfer energy from large to small body parts.

The correct coordination and timing of the diaphragm, core muscles, and intra-abdominal pressure maximizes strength, power, speed and endurance while at the same ensuring proper joint alignment and healthy muscle activation. The result is smooth and effortless movement that feels good!

Training the diaphragm is the first step towards a strong and stable core. We invite you to give this a try. Find a few moments in the day, for a week, to focus on training the diaphragm. Let us know how it goes.

Here are the first two Dad Moves videos again:

Getting the Diaphragm Moving – Intro to Breath

Diaphragm Progression – 4 Zone Expansion