How Smart Is Your Baby? #ad is a must have for any parent! Full of lifechanging information for both child and parents. Every child develops at a different speed, which is perfectly fine and normal. What is not acceptable, is not giving our children the best chance to flourish due to lack of information from our pediatric knowledge.
How Smart Is Your Baby? goes into great detail, however, infants are born deaf, blind, and dumb (can't speak). This is only due to their underdeveloped nervous systems. As the infant matures they begin to see more, hear more, and in turn learn more. Our job as a parent is to give the infant every opportunity to develop as quickly and completely as they can in order to get out of this helpless state and enjoy their surroundings as soon as possible.
From How Smart Is Your Baby? book, your infant's vision progressively increases from only being able to see light/dark, to seeing outlines, then figures, then colors, then clarity etc. The nerves and muscles that work the eye need exercised to develop and hit these landmarks towards perfect vision. This can be exercised by using light/dark stimulation.
A light switch with a dimmer can be utilized to tone the light down as to not overstimulate the sensitive young eyes. (If infant cries the light is possibly too bright) Turn the light on, count to 10, turn the light off, count to 10 then repeat as long as the baby is happy. Say "Light" in a loud clear voice, then say "Dark" in a loud clear voice each time you change the light. This not only exercises the eye, it also teaches your baby new words.
We found having my wife hold our son on her lap while I ran the switch and counted was a fun family activity we all enjoyed.
I have no doubt in my mind, our son was able to see much earlier with more clarity, due to this exercising. This equates to him being able to learn more, be stimulated, and enjoy his surroundings sooner than left to the few daily light/dark exercises the eyes get without this information.
From How Smart Is Your Baby? book, the infants breathing centers are underdeveloped, hence causing sporadic breathing. The lungs develop through movement and exercise. The more the infant is encouraged/allowed to move the quicker their lungs will develop. Thus decreasing risk for Sudden Infant Death (SIDS)
To our pleasant surprise, our 4 day old infant wanted to crawl the first day we got him home! Movement is encouraged and allowed by helping take gravity out of the equation.
An infant is not strong enough to go against gravity, this takes time. To help even the odds, a ramp can be built and placed at an angle to even the odds and allow the infant to move down the ramp. This allows to infant to move as they obviously want to in the first place, as you can see in the videos.
The book describes making the end of ramp at 30 degree angle so you can possibly place multiple tracks together. I would personally keep it simple and square as you will notice our ramp is cut at an angle from the videos.
Materials: #ad
Instructions:
1.Cut plywood- one: 16 inch wide x 96 inch long (base/floor)
Cut two: 6 inch wide x 95 inch long (sides)
Cut one: 6 inch wide x 16inch long (end cap)
2. Cut strips of upholstery & foam to fit each of the above 4 pieces. (leave overlap to staple to)
3. Sew upholstery & foam together (optional). We used all dark upholstery to wrap wood pieces, then just stretched and stapled 10 inch white strips over the dark upholstery as pictured.
4. After pieces are all wrapped and stapled into place. Screw end piece into place.
5. Lastly, screw side rails into place.
(note: screws are placed from base board bottom up through the rail and endcap boards & from endcap board into side rails to hold together)
This exercise was performed everyday since the day he was born, until he could see well. This is an exercise is a lot of fun, however, doing this exercise ties up a lot of hands. With that being said, this boy can see much earlier and much clearer than most infants.
Earlier eye sight development opens the door to so much more learning and enjoyment.
(This teaches numbers as well as new words).
Movement develops the breathing centers. This reduces risk for SIDS, develops strength, coordination, and they want to do it! (I am using a low level cold laser from my office periodically to see if I could tell a difference in each session)
No different than a tennis player grunting when they excerpt themselves, cries from the infant are perfectly healthy. The cries help them develop their lungs, as this takes a lot of effort. (Always remember to ask the infant every time if they want to crawl before starting. If he cried at all I took that as his answer of not wanting to exercise right now. They want to communicate!) Typically he wanted to crawl one time per day.
Look at him hold his head up already and the strength he has gained. (It is very important, that no one compares their child to these videos. Every child will develop at their own speed and perfect nervous system timing. We never force anything, their nervous system will change when it is ready).
The ramp/track is set at the height of a coffee table throughout all of these first videos, and the other end is on the floor (roughly 30 degree angle).
Each stage along the way is increasingly difficult as they gain weight. Their strength and weight ratio is constantly changing. (As any good parent, we only save the best of days to post and share!)
Notice the black & white checkerboard in the background from the book's instruction to help stimulate them.
Even now as I put this video up, it makes me cringe. As you and your baby get to know one another better, you will recognize their sounds and cries more and more. He was clearly not in the mood this day from the sound of his cry (I know now). However, he performed well and we had a great session full of love, despite my ignorance.
The battle between gravity & weight continues! (Now we are trying to adjust the height of the ramp to allow him to still crawl without his feet getting over balanced and trying to flip over his head).
Beginning to lift his entire body and get the crawling motion down. He now wants to crawl multiple times per day.
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