Baby’s First Year: Brain Development

by guest blogger Christine Roberts

founder at Nurturing Pathways, INC

The brain at birth has 100 billion neurons that are like seeds awaiting the proper nutrients to become healthy trees. As neurons get those nutrients from their learning environment, they grow roots and branches. The brain’s primary nutrients are food, sleep, responsive interaction with adults and movement opportunities.

The brain is the body’s most malleable organ. It dances with nature and nurture in a seamless flow of ever-changing states. Infants spend the first year of their lives "hard wiring" their eyes, ears, taste, touch and body awareness. Their brain, like a seed, comes with the potential for growth. The seed sprouts and grows roots and branches when all of the baby’s senses are stimulated.

At no other time will the brain grow at such a rapid rate, doubling its weight in the first year and achieving 95% of its adult weight by the age of four. Time spent on the tummy strengthens the baby’s body and supports their independent mobility, in addition to developing the brain’s neural connections. As neuroscientists like to say, "what gets fired gets hard wired."

Activities for Growth and Learning

Tummy time matters for the brain and body. Babies need lots of opportunities to discover their mobility. Just as a turtle flipped on its shell cannot get up and go, neither can an infant on its back. Our practices create outcomes. The time to put best practices into place is at the beginning of every child’s life, when the greatest long-term gain can be realized.

Tummy Time Tips and Tricks:

· Infants enjoy tummy time on a soft matted surface with a primary caregiver at the same level. Infants will be delighted with sensory responsive toys like chiffon scarves and musical instruments.

· Infants placed on their tummies in close proximity to one another will engage in observing their friends. Stay with the infant and support them with your reassuring touches and supportive words.

· When infants fight tummy time engage them with songs, rhymes and movement while they are on their tummy. The goal is to daily increase time spent on their tummy.

Sing rhymes like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and run your hands up and down their body like a spider. Put enticing instruments in front of them and tap the rhythm of the music on their bottom, toes and back.

(c) 2012 by Christine Roberts

Views expressed by guest bloggers may not be the views of Washington Parenting Education Network or all of its members. Guest bloggers are wholly responsible for the content of their posts.

Baby’s First Year: Motor Development

by guest blogger Christine Roberts

founder of Nurturing Pathways, INC

A baby's delicate neural networks need exercise just as their body does. Budding neural tree limbs need the fertilizer of movement to stimulate the chemical release of proteins that build the brain. Movement that involves push and pull strengthens, stabilizes and organizes patterns of movement. In an economy of design, the very events taking place in the body are taking place in the brain. Just as the shoulders, hips, hands and feet are becoming strengthened, stabilized and organized, so are the neural networks.

Movement experiences carried out on the tummy fulfill the developmental patterns that contribute to a sound body and brain. Along with the enormous physical benefits of movement for visual development, eye hand coordination, developing the arches in the feet and hands, and one’s overall sense of self; physical activity and interactive play are the primary ingredients for sound neurological integration. Tummy time milestones include rolling, crawling, creeping and standing. Tummy time also aids in the achievement of cognitive milestones like speaking their first words, increased attention span, and school readiness.

Motor development is cultivated from the prone position. Think of it as ‘growing from the ground up.’ If parents and caregivers consciously limit the time babies spend in containers, especially during the early months prior to crawling, the baby will experience less stress on their tummy to play.

(c) 2012 by Christine Roberts

Views expressed by guest bloggers may not be the views of Washington Parenting Education Network or all of its members. Guest bloggers are wholly responsible for the content of their posts.

The Basics of Newborn Sleep

by guest blogger Rebecca Michi

Parenting Consultant at RebeccaMichi.com

As a children’s sleep specialist newborn sleep is something I am asked about many times and though I help parents sleep train their children (up to 6 year olds), I don’t advise sleep training a newborn. The first three months really are the fourth trimester and I advise do whatever you can do to get as much sleep as you can!

Having said that, there is quite a bit we can be doing to encourage wonderful sleep habits. I’m going to outline for you my favorite sleep tips for newborns, these will give you confidence that you are doing all you can to get as much sleep as you all can whilst also setting up some great sleep associations for your infant.

Okay, let’s get started.

Set up a great sleep environment. Keeping the sleeping environment between 65 and 70 degrees is enough for your infant. We don’t want them becoming too hot or too cold. A great way to see if your infant is too hot or cold is to feel their chest. Often their little hands and their head can feel very cool, so check their chest to get a real idea of if they’re hot or cold.

Swaddle your infant. Infants are born with a startle reflex, as they go through different stages of the sleep cycle they can startle and wake themselves up! They are less likely to wake themselves if they are swaddled. Swaddling can also be very calming and relaxing for your infant. They have spent 9 months snuggled up in utero, suddenly having arms and arm which can freely move (remember your infant won’t have any control over their limbs) can be scary, uncomfortable and bother them. Swaddling is also a great way to calm a crying baby.

If you are trying to get your infant into its own sleep space, either a bassinet or crib but you find that they would rather be held this could be a bit of a problem. I do suggest holding them as much as you can, but sometimes you need to get yourself something to eat or you need to jump in the shower. Try wearing the crib sheet! Pop the sheet under your shirt for an hour or two or even place it under the covers of your bed. When you try to put your child down in the bassinet or crib it will smell of you. Having that secure smell will make them more comfortable staying away from you. You can also try wearing your infant in a carrier (don’t do this if you’re going in the shower!); you can still get things done whilst holding your baby.

Don’t worry too much about nursing/feeding your infant to sleep; they’re so young it’s fine to do. Don’t think that it is the only way you can get them to sleep. Every day try putting them down to sleep drowsy but awake. You never know they may be able to get themselves to sleep. Don’t worry if they can’t do it themselves, pick them up and maybe rock them to sleep (did you know rocking side to side is more relaxing than back to front?), when they have gone to sleep pop them back into the crib. Keep your hands on them for a little while just incase you need to pat them or give a little reassuring rub. 

It takes 20 minutes for an infant to fall into a deep sleep, if you rush off as soon as you’ve popped your infant into the crib and you keep having to go back to help them get back to sleep (this becomes very frustrating) just wait in their room until they are in a deep sleep. They’ll fall into a deep sleep quicker if you are there to help them sooner and it is less frustrating for you.

Don’t worry about setting up ‘bad’ sleep habits and associations with your infant. You really must do whatever you need to do to get you all as much sleep as you can get.

(c) 2011, Rebecca Michi. All Rights Reserved.

Views expressed by guest bloggers may not be the views of Washington Parenting Education Network or all of its members. Guest bloggers are wholly responsible for the content of their posts.

Temperament and Sleep

by guest blogger Rebecca Michi

parenting consultant at RebeccaMichi.com

One of the biggest factors to take into consideration when thinking about sleep training your child is their temperament. Temperament is the aspect of an individual’s personality that is innate rather than learned.

There are three basic types of temperament, here’s a run down of each.

• The Easy Child - this child showed regular eating, sleeping, elimination cycles, a positive approach response to new situations, and could accept frustration with little fuss. They adapted to change, such as new food or a new school quickly. They showed a good mood most of the time, and smiled often. Most of the problems reported with these children resulted when the child was placed in situations that required responses that were inconsistent with what they had learned at home.

• The Difficult Child - this child showed irregular eating, sleeping, and elimination cycles. They displayed a negative approach response to new situations, for example frequent and loud crying or throwing tantrums when frustrated. They are slow to adapt to change, and need more time to get used to new food or people. Most of the problems reported with these children centers around socialization patterns, expectations of family, school, and peer groups.
If pushed to become immediately involved in a situation, these children were more likely to exhibit loud refusal and sometime oppositional and aggressive behavior.

• The Slow-to-Warm-Up Child - this child showed negative responses of mild intensity when exposed to new situations, but slowly came to accept them with repeated exposure. They have fairly regular biological routines. Problems with these children varied depending on the other characteristics they showed.

The ‘Easy child’ rarely has long lasting sleep issues. They are very adaptable and can easily be sleep trained with any sleep training technique.

The ‘Difficult child’ is the hardest to sleep train (my eldest daughter has a difficult temperament and was hard to train). When sleep training a difficult child you want to choose your sleep training technique with care. I have found that cry it out techniques (elimination techniques, including; controlled crying and the Ferber method) don’t work with this temperament. I have heard of children crying for anything up to 6 hours! If you have a ‘difficult child’ please don’t use a cry it out technique, it’s not fair on you or your child. Take a look at some of the ‘no cry’ sleep training techniques out there (there are lots of them).

The ‘slow to warm up child’ is a bit in the middle when it comes to sleep training. You may find it difficult to get started with the sleep training, but when you do you’ll see results fairly quickly.

It’s hard to say which type of sleep training technique will work with a ‘slow to warm up child’, no cry techniques will certainly work, but it really depends on the child as to whether a cry it out technique will work. You’ll also want to make sure your not training the ‘slow to warm up child’ during a stage of separation anxiety (between 8 and 12 months is the hardest stage).

When you hit a bump in the road (i.e. Teething, illness or travel) you’ll again want to take into consideration your child’s temperament.

You should try and use the same technique (you may need to adapt it as your child get’s older), to get back on track. It will never take you as long to get back on track as the initial sleep training did (that is if you start getting back on track as soon as you can).

If you are interested in finding out more about your child’s temperament there are many quizzes online.

You can find out more about me and my ‘Finally get some sleep’ coaching packages at http://www.rebeccamichi.com/

(c) 2011, Rebecca Michi. All rights reserved.

Views expressed by guest bloggers may not be the views of Washington Parenting Education Network or all of its members. Guest bloggers are wholly responsible for the content of their posts.

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