BabaGim met Louise

10/09/2025

MASTERING MILESTONES
See the comments section below for where this developmental journey started.

PUSHING UP

Once the baby has mastered head control and enjoyed many playful hours on their tummy, the next step comes naturally—the baby wants to see more of the world! This curiosity encourages baby to start pushing up on their arms. As strength builds, those little arms straighten, and soon the baby will be pushing up on their hands.

You can now proudly announce: “My baby has officially mastered tummy time!”

Would you like to support your baby's natural brain and body development?

Follow the link below to find a BabyGym Instructor near you:

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09/09/2025

MASTERING MILESTONES
See the comments section below for where this developmental journey started.

KICKING

When baby starts to control the head, baby also starts to kick in the air and flex the hips, this is called hip flexion. This can best be seen when baby vigorously kicks in the air while lying on the back.

In utero you can feel baby kick, but towards the end of the pregnancy space becomes limited. After birth baby once again has the space and freedom to kick and learn about the range of motion the hips allow.

Baby's little legs will tirelessly bend and stretch until they have strengthened enough and baby is able to control the movement.

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08/09/2025

MASTERING MILESTONES
See the comments section below for where this developmental journey started

CONTROLLING THE HEAD

Muscles develop in a specific sequence:
• from top to bottom – starting with the neck, then the core; and
• from the inside out – first the arms and legs, then the hands and toes.

Head stability develops before all other physical milestones, and once the baby masters head control, the rest of the muscles follow. That’s why this milestone is so significant: when baby can control their heavy head, it becomes much easier to move and develop the body in a more coordinated and controlled way.

Did you know?

At birth, a baby’s head makes up about 25% of their total body weight! That’s why tummy time is such a challenge – lifting that heavy head is hard work!

Would you like to support your baby's natural brain and body development?

Follow the link below to find a BabyGym Instructor near you:

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06/09/2025

MASTERING MILESTONES
See the comments section below for where this developmental journey started

SMILING
Your baby’s first smiles will be in the womb. In the womb, the smiles are mostly reflexive and not deliberate. It is mostly from 6 to 8 weeks of age that the first intentional smile appears. You may be wondering how you will tell the difference. Rest assured that you will recognise a real smile when it happens!

A baby’s smile indicates that several building blocks are already in place. Building blocks such as:

• Keeping the head stable, to support the eyes to work together and focus.
• Understanding visual cues.
• Connecting and communicating.
• Expressing appropriate feelings, such as pleasure, excitement and contentment.

Take into consideration: If a baby was tube or cup fed, and the facial muscles haven’t had the necessary opportunity to develop optimally, the baby may seem sad simply because the baby still needs to continue to develop the facial muscles further. If the baby is overstimulated or understimulated, it will also affect expression.

The good news is that the baby's facial muscles can develop! And when expression develops, so does interaction and bonding.

Would you like to support your baby's natural brain and body development?

Follow the link below to find a BabyGym Instructor near you:

https://babygym.co.za/instructor_list/

05/09/2025

"A little soul who made me softer and stronger all at once." ~ Rebel Mama

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04/09/2025

MASTERING MILESTONES
See the comments section below for where this developmental journey started

Some babies need to LEARN to relax, especially if they had a rough start to life.

In the developing embryo, the skin and the nervous system both have the same origin; we can therefore think of the skin as the external portion of our nervous system. Because the skin and the nervous system have such a close connection, we can wake up or calm down the entire nervous system with deep pressure touch.

Objectives of the BabyGym Massage
- To bond with baby
- To relax and calm baby
- To stimulate development
- To build mom, dad or caregiver’s confidence in handling baby.

Benefits of the BabyGym Massage
- Gives baby a sense of safety and security
- Removes toxins
- Reduces pain
- Enhances circulation and metabolism
- Boosts the immune system to help baby fight infection
- Strengthens muscles
- Increases joint flexibility
- Activates growth hormones
- Creates a map of baby’s body in the brain.

Did you know? A newborn baby is not yet aware of the body, what it looks like and what it can do. By massaging the baby, we create a body map in the brain and increase awareness of the body. The brain can only use what the brain is aware of.

Massage is therefore a wonderful introduction to mastering milestones!

Would like to support your baby's natural brain and body development? Follow the link below to find a BabyGym Instructor near you:

https://babygym.co.za/instructor_list/

03/09/2025

MASTERING MILESTONES
See the comments section below for where this developmental journey started 👇🏻

SUCKING AND SUCKLING
Most babies can suck, but not all babies can suckle. The ability to feed, called suckling, starts many months before the baby is born. It starts around 9 weeks after conception when the Moro reflex prompts the newly shaped mouth and hands to open up. Around week 12, and after many times of opening and relaxing the mouth and hands, the baby has developed enough muscle tone to close his mouth. If his arms have grown long enough by now for his hands to reach his mouth, the baby starts to suck his thumb every time it touches his cheek or mouth.

Sucking develops the emotional brain and helps the baby to relax, releases feel good hormones that gives his immune system a boost and stimulates growth. A sucking baby is content, because the rhythmic pressure of his tongue on his palette is soothing and helps the baby to relax and dissolve the overdose of stress hormones, when he gets startled or stressed.

Sucking for nourishment is called suckling. Sucking with an ‘l’ – suckling, is much harder work than sucking because the baby needs to grasp moms breast firmly with his lips, his tongue needs to cup around the ni**le in such a way that he creates enough suction to get mom’s milk to flow. At the same time, he needs to co-ordinate swallowing and breathing too.

What an accomplishment it is for a baby to be able to suckle when he is not even an hour old!

❤️Would you like to support your baby's natural brain and body development? Follow the link below to find a BabyGym Instructor near you:

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03/09/2025

"Nothing ever seems impossible in spring, you know." ~ L.M. Montgomery

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29/08/2025

PLAY YOUR BABY TO BRILLIANCE

25/08/2025

JOIN BABYGYM

Support your baby’s natural brain and body development with BabyGym!

Learn the fundamentals in class and integrate them as a lifestyle at home.

Our 5-week, brain-boosting movement programme is fun for babies and enlightening for parents!

You’ll learn how to:
* Massage your baby from top to toe
* Awaken their senses
* Strengthen their muscles
* Help them reach movement milestones step by step,

And at the end, you’ll celebrate with the cutest BabyGym graduation imaginable!

Babies 6 weeks and older are welcome!

Join BabyGym today:
https://babygym.co.za/instructor_list/

07/08/2025

07/08/2025

MASTERING MILESTONES
See the comments section below for where this developmental journey started.

ROLLING
Rolling enables a baby to become mobile—an exciting first step for the baby! To roll, the baby needs to separate the shoulders from the hips by twisting the waist, a movement known as trunk rotation.

The trunk is the area between the hips and the shoulders. Hip flexion and trunk rotation precede rolling and crawling and are therefore crucial for reaching more advanced milestones later.

Notice - baby will prefer to roll to one side more than the other. It is said that babies roll away from their dominant brain hemisphere. To ensure whole-brain and body development, we need to encourage the baby to roll to both sides.

ROLLING OVER STIMULATES THE LEFT AND RIGHT BRAIN
The baby’s left brain controls the right arm and leg, while the right brain controls the left arm and leg.

Stimulating the baby's left brain is important because it develops the mechanics and wiring needed for language development, logical reasoning, planning & organisation, attention to detail and the ability to store facts in an orderly manner.

Stimulating the baby's right brain is important because it wires the brain to be flexible and enables creative problem-solving. A stimulated right brain also means the baby can grow up to be a lateral thinker, with great spatial skills and the ability to see the bigger picture.

Due to the different functions of the left and right parts of the brain, rolling over in both directions is important.

Rolling over to the left and right means the baby is not left- or right-brained but becoming whole-brained.

Would you like to support your baby's natural brain and body development?

Follow the link below to find a BabyGym Instructor near you:

https://babygym.co.za/instructor_list/