Increasingly, the western world is now enjoying the benefits of yoga for fitness and mental health. Preschool teachers and daycare providers can practice yoga not only with toddlers and preschool aged children, but also with infants.
Practicing yoga with infants provides the opportunity for gentle fitness as well as additional time to bond infants in daycare.
Benefits of Yoga for Infants
Yoga practice provides a wide range of wonderful benefits for infants. Marsha Wenig in an article in Yoga Journal titled “Yoga for Kids” describes how yoga practice provides a multitude of wonderful benefits for children. “Yoga enhances their flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness. In addition, their concentration and sense of calmness and relaxation improves. Doing yoga, children exercise, play, connect more deeply with the inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the natural world that surrounds them, ” says Wenig. The author of Born Yogis [Rodale, 2005], Susie Arnett, contends that babies are naturally able to accomplish over 100 asanas (yoga positions) of yoga as they develop.
Yoga helps infants relax and sleep better. It also helps them to be less fussy. Yoga poses also help infants with digestion. It is also yet another way to spend quality time and bond with the infants in your care.
A good place to begin learning about yoga for infants and moms is through books, classes and videos.
Books about Yoga with Infants
- Itsy Bitsy Yoga: Poses to Help Your Baby Sleep Longer, Digest Better, and Grow Stronger by Helen Garabedian [Fireside, 2004].
- Yogababy : Exercises to Help You Bond With Your Baby Physically, Emotionally and Spiritually by DeAnsin Goodson Parker PhD, and Karen W. Bressler [Broadway, 2000].
- Teach Yourself Baby Massage and Yoga by Anita Epple and Carpenter Pauline [McGraw Hill, 2007].
Yoga Classes for Infants
It is certainly worth taking yoga classes which are offered at many yoga studios. Most studios will offer a yoga program for infants 6 weeks old to nearly crawling and a separate class for children up to 24 months old. Taking an adult yoga class would also be of benefit in order to fully understand the practice of yoga.
Yoga Videos for Infants
Convenient videos, such as Itsy Bitsy Yoga's Sleep n' Grow DVD: Yoga for Your Baby from Birth to 10 Months with Helen Garabedian (2007) and Baby and Toddler Yoga [Bfs Studios, 2005] are available for in-home practice and are relatively in expensive.
Always consult with a health care practitioner before beginning any fitness program. As well, parents should be notified that yoga practice will take place in the daycare center or preschool and receive consent.
