Product Description

The ancient practice of yoga will help your baby sleep better, digest easier, be happier, and stay healthier. Start today.

If you've been searching for an excellent way to bond with your baby and improve his or her health, Itsy Bitsy Yoga is the solution you've been looking for. Helen Garabedian, a certified instructor in yoga and infant massage, has developed over seventy yoga postures and thirty-five series for moms and dads to enjoy with their growing babies. You don't need any previous yoga experience. Learn the many benefits of yoga, posture by posture, in this accessible guide, with seventy beautiful black-and-white photos, at-a-glance reference charts, and memorable Itsy Bitsy Yoga rhymes.

Yoga can help babies up to two years of age:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7808 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743243551
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Dr. Harvey Karp

author of The Happiest Baby on the Block

Helen Garabedian's Itsy Bitsy Yoga program has provided hundreds of moms and dads with a nurturing, cuddly way to bond with their young children...and it's fun! Parents will love this book.

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen

founder of the School of Body-Mind Centering© and author of Sensing, Feeling, and Action

Helen Garabedian's book on baby yoga offers parents a fun and loving way to bond with their babies while guiding them in experiencing and developing their bodies through simple, gentle yogic postures.

About the Author
Helen Garabedian, a certified Hatha yoga and pregnancy yoga teacher and an IAIM certified infant massage instructor, was one of the first people to be certified as an infant developmental movement educator in the United States. Helen is the founder of Itsy Bitsy Yoga™ through which she conducts classes, workshops, and training nationally. She lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A baby's most natural state is bliss. Open, curious, and content, babies are designed to give and receive love. However, sometimes a baby's true state falls a little off kilter and needs help to rebalance. Since babies do not come with instruction manuals, I teach parents and caregivers simple yoga-based movements and techniques to help free babies from suffering from digestion troubles and liberate their restlessness into peaceful sleep and happiness. You, as the caregiver, don't need any yoga experience to calm your baby and help him or her grow strong. All you need to do is breathe, love, and move!

The word yoga has acquired many translations over the centuries. According to The Heart of Yoga, by T. K. V. Desikachar, meanings of the word include "to unite," "to come together," "to tie the strands of the mind together," and "acting in such a way that all of our attention is directed toward the activity in which we are currently engaged." Yoga gives us insight. The practice of yoga with a baby can help parents and caregivers bond with the baby more deeply, and understand how best to care for them. When parents come to my yoga studio, they are not distracted by the outside world. Yoga can bring moms and dads closer to understanding and supporting their child's intentions, needs, and desires. Through yoga, babies sense their parents' trust and deep commitment to understanding and responsiveness as they move forward in developing their physical, social, intellectual, and emotional skills in the way that is aligned with each child's highest destiny.

Itsy Bitsy Yoga is a unique blend of yoga postures, infant developmental movement, and parent/child bonding. In this book, you will find nearly seventy easy-to-learn and practical poses and techniques that benefit your child from birth to twenty-four months old. I have intertwined the cross-cultural jewels from the wisdom of an infant's moving body, yoga, and the latest research in the field of infant development to deliver a developmentally nutritious movement program for a parent and baby to enjoy together.

In teaching yoga to facilitators and thousands of babies, toddlers, and parents, I have seen firsthand the benefits of yoga for babies: better sleep, improved digestion, relief from gas pains and mild colic, a stronger immune system, and an increase in body awareness and self-confidence.

As a certified yoga teacher and infant developmental movement educator, I examine Hatha Yoga postures with the intention of adapting them for the nonverbal baby to do with or without a parent's help. The culmination of my professional background, twenty years of yoga and meditation practice, and a lifetime of study and experience in caring for babies and toddlers, is evident in Itsy Bitsy Yoga. Itsy Bitsy Yoga teaches parents how to support their baby's physical development and movement as nature intended. As much as possible I will tell you the role yoga plays in your child's development so that the experience and rewards are richer for you.

Not everything in this book is yoga in a traditional sense. I also translate the movements of an infant's natural developmental progression into playful practices. Many of my students are especially impressed that my poses and techniques are able to calm their babies so well.

I will show you how certain positions play a necessary role in your baby's physical development. I'll help you support your baby's physical development and the natural flow of unfolding gross motor skills. Lack of awareness in positioning, holding, or moving an infant can result in future lower back problems, reading difficulties, and challenges in focus.

It is my belief that over thousands of years ago when yoga was first developing, yoga masters studied the movements of babies to create postures, or asanas. Through the practice of yoga, adults are returning to the unrestricted innocence and bliss of infancy. In a sense, yoga for babies has always existed. It is part of what babies do naturally. However, the natural movement babies need to experience is being reduced with the overuse of confining baby-holding devices such as infant car seats, walkers, seated activity centers, and strollers.

This photograph illustrates how an infant's development mirrors Classical Hatha Yoga postures developed more than five thousand years ago. For example, a baby coming up to a walking stance reflects the Downward Facing Dog Pose in Yoga.

Babies who are new to walking move into Downward Facing Dog repeatedly to transition from the floor into standing. Down Dog (as I like to call it in Itsy Bitsy Yoga) also occurs earlier in development when a baby is almost crawling. Throughout the book, I will explain what role Down Dog and other traditional Hatha Yoga postures play in your baby's development.

Top Five Reasons Why Babies Are Natural Yogis (yoga students)

1. Like yogis, babies prefer to breathe through the nose.

2. Like yogis, babies are only concerned with the present moment.

3. Like yogis, babies love unconditionally.

4. Like yogis, babies practice nonviolence.

5. Like yogis, babies practice yoga postures naturally as part of development.

Is It Too Early or Too Late for My Baby or Toddler to Start Yoga?

No. You're never too young or too old to start the practice of yoga. Parents and caregivers are invited to start practicing the postures in Itsy Bitsy Yoga with babies anytime between birth and twenty-four months. See Chapter 2 to get you started.

Yoga Takes as Little as Twenty Seconds and as Long as Twenty-five Minutes

The time you spend doing Itsy Bitsy Yoga is a vacation from the rest of your day. This developmentally nutritious activity also enhances your bond with your baby. A baby's or toddler's yoga practice can last twenty seconds to twenty-five minutes, depending on the baby's needs and your schedule. One of the book's nine Magic Poses (explained on page 10) can reduce fussiness almost instantaneously. In five to ten minutes you and your baby can engage in any one of the book's thirty-five Itsy Bitsy Yoga Series. Each series playfully combines three to seven postures to help you calm your baby, help your baby sleep longer, and grow stronger. Finally, you may choose to practice a number of the book's seventy yoga postures that are appropriate for your baby's current developmental stage.

No experience is necessary to share yoga and its benefits with a baby. Many people have always wanted to try yoga but thought they were too busy, until they became parents. In fact, more than half of the parents I teach had never done yoga before expecting a child. When a woman becomes pregnant she has more reason to pay attention to and care for her body in ways she might not have previously. Parents come to my classes to bond with and learn about their babies. After all, the word yoga means "to unite." When people learn how beneficial yoga is, they want to share it with their families. Also, my students have found yoga to be useful for enhancing the bond between a new baby and older siblings, grandparents, other family members, and nannies.

Molly and her fourteen-month-old son, Trevor, came to my class on a friend's referral. Molly had never tried yoga, but had known that someday she would like to. She thought it would be a good activity to share with her son, and it was! It turns out that Molly loved the time she spent practicing yoga with Trevor. Now, every time Trevor hears the words "Tree Pose," he assumes the Tree Pose in yoga! Molly has also begun practicing yoga for herself and finds that she has more energy to keep up with her growing toddler.

Copyright © 2004 by Helen Garabedian

Customer Reviews

Great book!
I love this book. I started using it when my baby was 4 weeks old. After trying to do "mommy baby" yoga (using Baby Om) I decided it was much easier to do yoga with my baby separately from my own practice, though there is some overlap. Realistically, you have to stop a million times usually to wipe spit up, nurse, burp, etc, and for me it worked better to have all my attention on my baby. This book gives simple exercises, and great tips to make the experience enjoyable for baby. My baby has gotten more and more used to it the more we do it, and she is very calm, relaxed and peaceful when we do it now. I also like this book because it gives new exercises based on lots of developmental steps (head holding, almost sitting, etc) instead of just yoga for a baby - we all know that a 4 week old is much different from a 4 month old! I highly recommend this and plan to use it until my baby is 2!

My Baby Loves It
What a fun and enjoyable workout for baby and mommy. My daugther is 14 months old, and feels so relaxed during the mellow poses, and laughs during the "happy baby" poses. You can tailor the session to meet your needs and the time of day.

This book is well-written and organized by baby's age from birth to 24 months. The author writes with a real love and respect for babies.

Some of the poses are based on traditional yoga, and some are more like massage therapy. Most of the poses have a cute little song to go with them to keep the interest and attention of the baby.

Excellent for Parents and Yoga Teachers
This new release is outstanding in the field of infant bonding/baby yoga and I believe I have read or reviewed everything that's out there! I bought it for myself the day it was released and now I have to reorder as I'm giving my copy to a friend who is a new mom. Now I'm busing letting all my yoga teacher friends know about this book so they can incorporate it in their classes for children! For moms, Helen begins by setting the intention for your practice with your baby; choose one that fits you: "I am the perfect parent for my baby and my baby is perfect for me," "I remain relaxed as I notice and fulfill my baby's needs", I trust my intuition", or "Yoga is special for my baby and me." A quick scan of the chapter titles reveals that all early developental stages, from infant/newborns, head-holders, almost sitting, almost crawlers, tots, crawlers, almost walking, walkers, and yoga through childhood, are covered here. And as the introduction states "you...don't need any yoga experience to calm your baby and help him or her grown strong." Buy two, and pass one on to a friend, yoga teacher/studio, or your local library. Spread the word! You can't miss this wonderful opportunity to bond with your baby, adopted baby, foster baby, or grandbaby! 'All you need to do is breathe, love, and move!"