Fussy Baby? 1 Activity, 10 Facts You Need To Know to Help
Uh-oh. It’s happening again. You feel like you’re losing your mind because your baby is fussy, screaming and crying. You think you’ve tried everything—and seemingly nothing has worked. But, have you tried the baby accordion activity?
Here are 10 reasons you should incorporate this easy-to-do activity into your daily baby care routine.
Easier poops for fussy baby
The baby accordion activity creates movement in the gastrointestinal tract. Babies who have trouble pooping typically benefit from this therapeutic motion, because it helps to loosen up their bowels.
Think about it: When you exercise or do crunches, what happens? Do you feel the urge to make a bowel movement soon thereafter? Conversely, if you’ve ever been bedridden for a few days, you know how constipated you were!
Brings up stubborn burps and reduces gassiness in fussy baby
The gastrointestinal tract has a bunch of long tubes. If you’ve ever worked with tubes or hoses, you know that they can get a little kinked up. At times air or something else can get stuck in them. What do you do? You move them around, right?
The baby accordion activity helps babies to move gas. The burps come up the tube and out the mouth; the flatulence goes down the tube and out the other end.
Again, think about when you exercise. It just helps to loosen EVERYTHING up.
Provides exercise for fussy baby
Think about how you feel if you are on the couch all day and never walk around. You just do not feel well. You may even start to feel depressed or even constipated. Exercise is therapeutic for people of all ages! And, regular exercise has been scientifically shown to benefit pregnant women and their babies in utero!
Prepares baby for tummy time
Does your baby hate tummy time? Does that seem odd to you?
There could be several reasons why babies don’t like tummy time. For example: they may have sustained a neck problem during labor and delivery. Later on, while on their stomach trying to look up, their neck can hurt, and they scream immediately.
In these and other cases, the baby accordion activity may help to ease their discomfort during tummy time.
Aids in brain detoxification
Every time you flex and extend a human spine, this pump-like motion propels blood and cerebrospinal fluid in and out of the brain.
This fluid pump mechanism is how we detoxify our brain. The less toxic our brain is, the better it functions and the happier we feel!
Increases neck strength and mobility
By doing the baby accordion exercise, you are helping your child to gain neck strength. Babies need to develop neck muscles in order to hold their head up. This will be crucial for their milestone developments.
Contributes to a good baby head shape
When babies lie flat for long periods of time, they can end up with a flattened or abnormal head shape. So, any activity that gets them off their backs helps to avoid a baby head shape problem. (This “flat head syndrome” is also called plagiocephaly). Additionally, as they hold their head up, their neck muscles, which attach to the back of their head, will gently pull on the back of their skull. This gentle pulling will help their head maintain a normal shape.
Has a calming effect on fussy baby
Babies have a milk diet and a sensory diet. How are you feeding their senses?
The baby accordion activity feeds the baby’s sensory diet. It’s not just a different view, or more touch. It’s also different sensations throughout the body. Hmmmm…sound nice?
This sensory stimulation, and bathing of the brain with blood and cerebrospinal fluid, has a calming effect on your baby.
At-home activity is free!
This little exercise is free, easy to learn, and can be done at home. What are you waiting for?
Drug-free, intervention-free simple relief
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Recommendations for doing the baby accordion activity
Any baby and any parent can do the baby accordion activity. Watch me demonstrate it here. After you watch this video, follow these steps:
- Ideally, both mother and father should participate. Trade off, if you can.
- Do it before and after a feeding.
- Do it before a diaper change, or if your baby seems to be constipated.
- Fold the baby’s arms in front of him.
- Move the baby close to your chest.
- Put your hands around their arms and under their pelvis. (between their legs)
- Move your arms as though you were playing the accordion.
- If they tense up, gently bounce them up and down while shushing quietly in their ear. When they relax, start to play the baby accordion.
- Do one round of the baby accordion activity for about 2-3 minutes. Aim to do 10 rounds a day; you’re trying to achieve 30 minutes a day.
Dealing with a fussy baby is literally part of my job. I’ve used it with hundreds of babies and have seen almost immediate results. Better yet, parents have told me, time and again, how much the baby accordion activity has helped relieve their baby’s fussiness.
Did you try doing the baby accordion activity? Did it help your baby to be less fussy?
