Why is Yoga great for you and your child

Being active throughout the day helps the growth and development of toddlers. Performing yoga with your toddler (from about 1 year old) is a wonderful way to spend quality time with your child and keep them active. It helps you interact and communicate with your child and promotes development and movement. Yoga for kids is especially beneficial for healthy development. Read on to see how yoga can benefit both you and your child.

Benefits of practicing yoga with your child

You might be wondering why yoga is important for kids and parents together. Well, yoga has many physical and emotional benefits, such as:

It is a great bonding experience with your child: Yoga can help you connect and communicate with your child. You are not only connected through touch while performing yoga poses with your toddler, but you also get to spend quality time with your kid. Oxytocin, the feel-good hormone, is released when you physically touch a loved one, and what better way to connect than to perform yoga with your little one?
You'll be able to ease back into yoga: Starting postnatal yoga is an excellent way to take care of yourself, physically and emotionally.
It's great for emotional well-being: Yoga is beneficial for improving your overall mood, leaving you and your child feeling fresh, alert, and enthusiastic. Yoga for kids has continually proven beneficial to their emotional development.
It can help you both sleep better: Yoga can help you and your child sleep better. Regular bedtime yoga can prepare your body for sleep at the right time and promote good sleep quality.
It can aid in good digestion: Sometimes, children may have constipation or even tummy aches. Yoga helps stretch the abdominal muscles and allows for better movement of food through the digestive system. It helps to prevent constipation and indigestion.
You can meet other new moms: Often, new mothers feel isolated and lonely. Yoga classes are a great space to meet new mothers and discuss any troubles you face in caring for your child.

Looking forward to Toddler and Mum Yoga time? Here are some poses to get you started:

Here are some poses that you and your little one can perform together.

a. Boat Pose

An excellent way to strengthen the core muscles and stretch the hamstring muscles at the back of your thighs, the boat pose can be performed by you and your toddler as follows:

Sit with your knees bent and toes touching while facing your child.
Hold your little one’s hands and touch their soles with your soles.
While your soles touch, slowly straighten one leg by lifting it a little bit.
Lift the other leg too, while maintaining a sitting posture.

b. Seesaw pose

This is an excellent way to stretch the back muscles and the hamstring muscles. It can be performed in the following manner:

Sit facing your child with your legs stretched out wide. You can try to touch the soles of your baby’s feet, or your baby’s soles can touch the inside of your outstretched leg.
Hold one another’s hands.
Take turns rocking your body back and forth so that one of you leans forward while the other leans backward.

c. Downward-facing dog pose

This pose will increase lung capacity by strengthening your chest muscles; increasing blood circulation to the brain; helping calm the mind; and relieving fatigue. You can do this pose with your child by your side or in front of you, following your lead.

Follow these steps for the downward-facing dog pose:

Go down on all fours in the table pose such that your arms and legs form the legs of the table and your back forms the tabletop.
Feet should be hip-width apart and parallel to each other; hands should be shoulder-width apart.
While breathing out, lift your hips up and straighten your elbows and knees; your toes should be pointing outward such that your body forms a V shape.
Take long breaths and look towards your navel.
Bend your knees and come back to the table pose while exhaling.

Precautions while doing yoga with your baby

Keep these tips in mind while performing yoga with your child:

Spend a maximum of twenty minutes practicing yoga with your kid.
Avoid spending long periods in any pose.
Do not just explain a pose; demonstrate it.
Avoid any pose that involves too much bending backward or forwards.
Do not make your child perform handstand or headstand poses.
Always perform yoga under expert guidance and do not let your child perform any pose without supervision.
Perform yoga on an empty stomach.

For more developmental activities, visit the BabyG App. We work hard to provide the right developmental advice, best suited for you and your child.