10 Early Stimulation Exercises For Your Baby

Early stimulation exercises are important for babies. They help improve their flexibility and also help strengthen their muscles.

It’s important to take a few minutes during the day to establish physical contact with your baby in order to help them with this process.

These early stimulation exercises should be performed in accordance to your baby’s age. You can pick a time during the day that doesn’t interfere with their feeding or sleeping in order to practice them.

Start with five-minute sessions and you can slowly increase the time. You shouldn’t exceed 10 minutes.

In this article, we’ll provide some tips for implementing these exercises.

Early stimulation exercises from 0–3 months

These exercises should be light when you first start them. They’ll help the child gain greater mobility and new sensations. They’ll also awaken the child to stimuli.

1. Play with every one of their fingers, one by one. You can move around their little fingers very delicately.
2. Massage their hands and feet. After you’re done with their fingers, you can carefully massage their hands and feet.
3. Place the baby face up, take a hold of their feet and move their knees towards their abdomen. Repeat this exercise 5 times with each leg initially, and then you can increase the frequency in the next sessions.
4. Place the baby face up again, show them a colorful toy about 30 cm above them and move it from side to side so they can move their head.
5. While face up, move their right hand towards the opposite shoulder delicately. Repeat this exercise with their other hand. Later you can cross their arms over their chest.

Early stimulation exercises from 3–9 months

As the baby grows, the exercises can become a bit more complex. You can start doing face down exercises to strengthen the baby’s neck.

1. Place the baby face up and delicately move their legs in a cycling motion.
2. Clap with their hands
3. While face up, push one leg towards their abdomen while stretching the other one. Repeat the exercise with the other leg.
4. While face up, take their arms and raise them slowly until they assume a sitting position.
5. Now, face down, place a few toys in front of them and stimulate them to reach them.

Other physical contact and relaxation exercises for your children

Physical contact and relaxation exercises are also important for our little ones. Practicing them is essential in order to generate different emotions.

Physical contact generates a feeling of emotional well-being. When we’re physically closer to our children, we create an important emotional connection.

1. Hug your child. This provides a feeling of protection, affection and security. It also strengthens their self-esteem, reduces anxiety, and creates a good mood and motivation.
2. Breathe deeply. Invite your child to perform breathing exercises to help them relax. You can make it a game or you can develop it into a habit.
3. You can raise their arms up to their heads while they inhale fully. After this, slowly bring down their arms as they exhale.
4. You can also place a toy on the child’s stomach. They should try to raise it using their respiration.
5. Massages are important for babies and children, and there are several techniques you can use.
6. Children can do yoga as well. They can start with basic exercises and movements. This will help them reach a state of well-being and relaxation.
7. Music is vital for our children. It helps to awaken their body and mind. We just need to find the music they like the most.

It’s very easy to make our children feel good. You’ve now seen the importance of physical contact and what a simple hug can do for a child’s emotions.

Put these tips into practice and you’ll see that your child will feel better.