The Importance of Exercise for Your Baby

Most babies start to walk somewhere around their first birthday. There are many movement milestones that they reach before this one, though. It's important that you give your child lots of exercise and play to help them reach each of these milestones. There are many different ways you can do this. In this article I will be outlining some of the easiest ways to help ensure your baby is getting the valuable exercise she needs. One of the best things about helping your baby exercise and develop is that she will be playing at the same time that she is exercising.

When your baby is still a newborn, you should try putting her on her tummy for a few minutes at a time, several times a day. This will allow her to work her muscles that she will need to learn how to crawl, and then walk. You can get a baby mat that has activities for her to do or things to look at. But if you don't want to buy her one of those, you can just lay in the floor with her. Knowing she can look at you might motivate her to raise her head up more often and for longer periods of time. During this time, she will also benefit from just looking at bright colored objects. Crib mobiles are popular during this time because it gives baby something she can focus on that moves and catches her attention.

Once your baby can hold her head up, you can start helping her learn to crawl. One of the easiest ways to do this is to put a toy just barely out of her reach. Most children will scoot towards it, so they can hold it and examine it. This is also a good way to help your baby learn to roll over. Choose toys that are bright and/or shiny to make your child more interested in reaching them.

After your child has started scooting around, make sure she has somewhere safe to play and explore all the time. Now is the time to make sure that she won't be able to reach anything dangerous or be able to pull anything heavy onto herself. Leave toys or other safe objects that she can play with in easy places for her to find. She will love exploring her surroundings and discovering all the fascinating objects.

Before long, she will probably start crawling. Not all babies crawl, but many do. They discover that they can get somewhere faster when they crawl than they do when they just scoot. While they are crawling, most babies discover that they can use the edge of the couch or coffee table to pull up on and stand and look at stuff. This leads to cruising, which quickly leads to walking.

Once she learns to walk, there will be a whole new world of possibilities available. She will be able to go for walks, and play outside a lot more than she could when she was smaller. Keep her safe and use your own imagination.