A recent research study replicated a study done in the 1940’s in which researchers tested children ages three, five, and seven for motor skills and coordination.  Startling results: today’s five-year-olds tested at the same level as three-year-olds from 60 years ago. They found a two-year delay compared to 60 years ago across the board! Researchers delved a little deeper. 60 years ago the norm for walking was eight to ten months, now it is 12-15 months. This has left a lot of scientists scratching their heads.  I too was shocked, until I took a look around, that is.

What else happened in the past 60 years, besides the “removable car seat craze”? In 1992 researchers discovered that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) could be prevented by placing babies on their back to sleep, and in 1997 the “Back to Sleep Campaign” was launched. In subsequent years babies began falling an average of six months behind on their milestones and early developmental skills, but experts say back-sleeping has reduced the incidence of SIDS by more than 50 percent. Are we trading milestones for safety?  It is 2011, can’t we have both?

Of course we need car seats, in the car! let’s leave them there. I watch my 5’2” sister struggle to carry her 15 pound six-month-old around in the ten pound car seat. No wonder she is seeing an orthopedist for her sore shoulder.

The other issue researchers think contributes to the lost skills over the past 60 years is all the bouncy seats, swings, and vibrating chairs out there. Babies are spending more time than ever in “containers” and they are losing important skills because of it. There is even a term for it. Babies requiring therapy because of the flattening of the back of their heads are called “container babies” or “bucket babies”, but nobody seems to be taking notice because it is the new norm. Babies with flat heads who are always strapped in something is the norm?!? Are we really okay with this? If we are changing the shape of babies skulls, what is happening to their brain inside?

Of course we need to keep putting our babies to sleep on their backs, but what about play time? During awake, alert play time babies should be spending a minimum of twenty minutes per day on their tummies from day one, and by six months, babies should be on their tummies for at least two hours a day. Tummy time is when babies develop neck and trunk strength, begin to roll and crawl, and improve their vision skills and motor skills. It is so vital to early development, and yet a lot of babies never get tummy time anymore.

My children are 12 and nine, and my sister’s children (whom I often take care of) are six months and two and my brother’s baby is just three weeks old, so I am not that far removed. I know sometimes when a baby is sleeping it is just so much easier to keep them in the car seat instead of waking them up and we need two hands to make dinner.  I understand the need for these items to get through the day. So what is a busy mother who needs to run errands and cook dinner to do? How can we keep our babies safe and also make sure they reach their milestones?

How about we use slings instead of car seats to carry babies around in public? Our hands are free, we are not injuring our shoulders, and babies are safe and close to our bodies, but still have free movement. Use vertical slings for older babies and horizontal slings for newborns, but lower the fabric so they can see out of it.  As soon as babies have some trunk support, we can use those handy germ-free cloth inserts in shopping carts and place the baby right in the cart. That way babies can practice trunk stability and head control while we shop.

We can make tummy time a priority during play time and replace the bouncy seat in the corner of the kitchen with a pack and play. Put your baby on her tummy with a few toys around her while you make dinner.

Let’s liberate the babies! Building awareness is half the battle and when we know better we do better. Help spread the word, leave the car seats in the car as much as possible, and allow tummy time several times throughout the day.

I worked as an OT in schools for about 7 years in Brooklyn, NY and in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I’ve worked with children of all ages with disabilities and developmental delays, and although I always loved working with the kids, there was always one very frustrating aspect of my work. I always felt like no matter what the delay, the child would have had a better outcome had it been addressed earlier. Fourth graders who still couldn’t hold a pencil correctly, second graders who lacked the gross motor skills to catch a ball seemed to have missed important developmental milestones long before I came onto the scene. Even my preschool students who couldn’t work a pair of scissors or tie their shoe often seemed to have missed something early on.

After watching the early development of my own two little girls and educating myself more on the critical first year of development, I put together a program called Aimee’s Babies. My program includes a DVD called Aimee’s Babies Baby Massage and Developmental Exercises, and it teaches step-by-step baby massage as well as lots of tips and exercises for optimal development throughout the first year. I also have a CD for toddlers and preschoolers called “Love Notes” with music to encourage movement, exercise and development of fine and gross motor skills for school readiness. I do a lot of private and public teachings of early development in hospital settings and I love it because I am finally getting information out there for parents as early as possible, before babies are even born in some circumstances.

I think new parents, including myself, are very focused on developmental milestones to the point of constantly comparing their baby to other babies and living by milestone charts. It is great to be aware of what milestones babies should achieve every month and to keep close tabs on development, but it can be taken too far and cause a great deal of panic in a new parent if milestone charts are taken too literally. I have had lots of calls from terrified mothers who think their 12-month-old is delayed because her 11-month-old cousin is already walking while their child continues to crawl on all fours.

Early childhood development is highly variable. It is perfectly within the normal range for a 24-month-old, for example, to say 50 words or 150 words. That is a big difference. I always tell parents to use the charts as a guide, but not to get too caught up in them. The most important things about early milestones are:

Babies should continue to make progress every month. It doesn’t have to be on the exact day of their birthday, but you should see constant progress, and new developmental changes every week or two.

Baby development should never plateau for more than a month. If there are no new milestones or developmental changes for more than a month in the first year, check with baby’s pediatrician.

Baby development should never regress. If they were able to master a skill (crawl, for example) and suddenly they stop, that is a red flag.

Social development is as important as physical development. Encourage eye contact, lots of interaction with other babies and adults, and verbalization as much as possible.

Babies should never skip a developmental milestone. This is perhaps the most important, because in our competitive society, parents applaud children who go straight to walking without ever crawling, for example, and this could cause problems down the road. Every developmental milestone builds on the previous one and each phase lays the groundwork for skills that will be learned later on.
The first few weeks of a new baby’s life is an exciting, emotional, and overwhelming time. If only we knew what they were thinking and feeling as newborns. They seem to be in their own little world since they cannot look us in the eyes and tell us all their wants and needs, but we know for certain that babies are born with an amazing ability to take in new information. They open their eyes, listen to new sounds, and take in new scents in the air. They are absorbing details from their world that we often miss or take for granted. From the day your baby is born, she is taking in new information from the world around her through her senses and using that information to build connections in her brain. Your new baby gains so much information in the first year of life that her brain will actually double in weight from the time she is born until her first birthday. It is a critical time for providing your baby with learning experiences and stimulation because the brain cells that are not stimulated within the first few years will actually die.

Your baby is learning about the world through her sense of touch, sight, sound, taste and smell. Through a process called sensory integration she has to first take in all of this information and then learn to make sense of it. Sensory integration lays the foundation for learning and development. You can dramatically improve your baby’s development by providing experiences to stimulate each of these senses and build new connections in her brain.

There have been major ups and downs in my journey so far, and I’m sure there with be more to come.

The one thing I know for sure is that the information on my Aimee’s Babies DVD and iphone apps can change lives. It changed my life. When I had a colicky baby, I learned a new helplessness that I had never experienced in all my 26 years. I thought I had tried everything to stop the incessant screaming and discomfort from this little six pound fury, then one day I remembered something that I learned in OT school and I tried some basic massage strokes on her and it helped (a little bit).  Every day I researched and learned some more and tried it on her several times a day until the screaming eventually subsided. After seeing the value of it, I became certified in Baby’s First Massage and I knew that I wanted to share that information with every new parent, so I put it on a video and began giving it away. Three version, two publishers, two languages, and five distributors later, that information is finally getting out there to the bigger audience I envisioned. My only goal is to continue to learn and to continue to share with as many new parents as possible. I would love for every new parent to learn baby massage and baby development exercises and incorporate it into their lives as naturally as diaper changes and feedings. What a world we would live in if that were the case. Bonding, loving, nurturing, peace…