DeveloBaby

Cross-lateral movements (CLM) are crucial for a baby’s development for several reasons:

Brain Development
CLM help stimulate the growth of the bundle of nerve fibers connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain. This improves communication between both sides of the brain, enhancing cognitive and motor abilities.

Coordination
CLM encourage the brain to coordinate and integrate information from both sides, promoting overall brain function.

Gross Motor Development
CLM aid in developing gross motor skills by encouraging the use of large muscle groups.

Fine Motor Development
CLM lay the groundwork for fine motor skills, as they involve coordination and control that will later be necessary for tasks like writing and buttoning clothes.

Bilateral and Hand-Eye Coordination
Activities involving crossing the midline improve hand-eye coordination, which is crucial for many everyday tasks. Understanding and using both sides of the body effectively enhances a child’s ability to perform complex tasks.

Spatial Awareness and Proprioception
CLM improve proprioception, which is the sense of body position and movement. This helps babies understand where their body is in space and how to move it effectively.

Language and Cognitive Skills
The integration of both hemispheres helps language development, as language processing involves various areas of the brain.

Examples of crossing movement exercises for babies include:
- Passive cross-lateral movements, like those shown in the video, until the baby can roll back to belly
- Rolling
- Pivoting (turning)
- Reaching across the body
- Belly crawling with cross movements
- Crawling on all fours
- Biking and other activities that engage both sides of the body alternately.

Overall, crossing movement exercises are fundamental in fostering a baby’s physical, cognitive, and neurological development, laying a strong foundation for future learning and motor skills.

With love,
Maria ♥️

One of my favorite baby sensory activities is this one right here 🥰

I call it “The Sensory Rock”.

The Sensory Rock combines gentle touch on both the front and back of your baby’s body with a calm rocking movement. For many babies, this combination can have a wonderfully soothing and regulating effect on the nervous system.

Simple. Cozy. Effective.

Enjoy!

If you’d like more sensory activities, calming exercises, and regulation strategies for your baby, you’ll find them in my program, “Develobaby - Sleep”.

Your baby doesn’t need to struggle with sleep or restlessness to benefit from sensory stimulation. These activities can support regulation, body awareness, and connection, and they’re a lovely way to spend time together.

Comment SLEEP below for a direct link or visit the link in my bio. Use the check out code MOTOR15 for a 15% discount❗️

With love,
Maria ♥️

A good habit to develop from the start is picking your baby up sideways. Of course, you’ll need time to learn how to carry and lift your newborn, but once you’re comfortable, you can start as shown in the video.

❗️Ensure your baby’s head doesn’t hang down; support it with your finger if necessary❗️

Lift in a tipping motion rather than a straight upward lift, and do it as slowly as possible.

This daily habit will help your baby strengthen the muscles needed for rolling and crawling later.

Let me know if this was helpful to you!

With love,
Maria ♥️
(Your pediatric physical therapist from Denmark 🇩🇰)

One of the questions I’m often asked is what it means when parents hear small clicks, pops, or snapping sounds coming from their child’s joints. Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases, this is completely normal and harmless.

These sounds can occur for several different reasons. Sometimes they are caused by tiny gas bubbles in the joint fluid that form and collapse as the joint moves. Other times, they occur when tendons or connective tissue glide over bones or other structures around the joint.

Many adults also notice that their knees, ankles, or shoulders click during certain movements. On its own, this is not a sign that anything is wrong.

As long as your child seems happy, moves normally, and is not in pain, clicking sounds from the joints are completely normal.

There are, however, a few situations where joint clicking should be assessed by a doctor:

🔸 If the clicking comes from the hip and can be reproduced over and over again with the same movement.

🔸 If your child seems to be in pain, cries, or resists certain movements.

With love,
Maria ♥️

🤷‍♀️

When a baby looks down towards their own bellybutton in a tiny nod while lying on their back or on their side, the deep neck muscles are activated, helping to build a strong foundation for motor development.

Enjoy!

With love,
Maria ♥️

This fun exercise is great for:

🔸ARCHING BABIES
Arching babies often have difficulty bending their pelvis forward (into flexion) as they arch their body backwards a lot of the time. This can lead to tension and tightness around the pelvis which again makes it more difficult to stop the arching. This exercise helps with the flexion movement and with softening the tissue.

🔸C-SHAPE (BANANA SHAPE)
Babies who tend to bend their body to one side in a c-shape/banana shape often have tightness in one side and this exercise helps realign and soften this. In this case make sure you stretch more on the tighter side of the pelvis.

🔸CONSTIPATION
This exercise is also great for babies who have constipation or difficulty passing gas.

💥If you want to read more about arching, comment “Arch” for link💥

Let me know if this was helpful to you! I will adjust my content to what you react the most to 🥰

With love,
Maria ♥️

I think it’s time to repost one of my all time most popular reels that has been watched more that 30 million times across my English, German and Danish channels 🙌🏻🤍

This exercise is good for general core and body strengthening of babies who are rolling from back to belly.

The exercise is also very helpful to do before diaper change if you have a wrestling match with your fiercely turning baby every time you need to change a diaper

This will not only be fun to do but also result in a mild short-term fatigue of the core muscles. For a few moments after that your baby will happily lie still on their back. 🙌🏻

The point of this exercise is to motivate your baby to want to stay on the belly while gently pushing your baby back on the back.

❗️Most babies will enjoy using their muscles like this but doing baby exercises should always be fun and a positive addition to the day… So please make sure your baby enjoys it❗️

With love,
Maria ♥️
(Your BabyPT from Denmark)