parenting baby guide

Your newborn baby is a curled-up bundle; in a position we call physiological flexion. It is the shape your baby has been tightly cuddled into by the walls of the uterus. The very first motor milestone of infancy is to uncurl and develop the extensor or back muscles. As you hold your baby to your shoulders and she lifts and bobs her heavy head on a weak and unsteady neck, she works these muscles. However, there is a better, more effective way to strengthen the back muscles – tummy time. Cape Town-based physiotherapist Kirsten Williams confirms, "tummy time is essential to strengthen the babies' neck and back extension muscles. This extension is needed to keep your little one's head and body upright...