The ancient practice of yoga will help your baby sleep better, digest easier, be happier, and stay healthier. Start today. If you've been searching for an excellent way to bond with your baby and improve his or her health, Itsy Bitsy Yoga is the solution you've been looking for. Helen Garabedian, a certified instructor in yoga and infant massage, has developed over seventy yoga postures and thirty-five series for moms and dads to enjoy with their growing babies. You don't need any previous yoga experience. Learn the many benefits of yoga, posture by posture, in this accessible guide, with seventy beautiful black-and-white photos, at-a-glance reference charts, and memorable Itsy Bitsy Yoga rhymes. Yoga can help babies up to two years of age: -sleep better -get relief from gas pains and colic -digest food easier -stay healthier with a strong immune system -receive neuromuscularm stimulation -learn to relax The book also features seven Magic Poses that can soothe fussy, upset babies within minutes! So start enjoying more time with your happy yoga baby right now. Dr. Harvey Karp author of The Happiest Baby on the Block Helen Garabedian's Itsy Bitsy Yoga program has provided hundreds of moms and dads with a nurturing, cuddly way to bond with their young children...and it's fun! Parents will love this book. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen founder of the School of Body-Mind Centering© and author of Sensing, Feeling, and Action Helen Garabedian's book on baby yoga offers parents a fun and loving way to bond with their babies while guiding them in experiencing and developing their bodies through simple, gentle yogic postures. Helen Garabedian, a certified Hatha yoga and pregnancy yoga teacher and an IAIM certified infant massage instructor, was one of the first people to be certified as an infant developmental movement educator in the United States. Helen is the founder of Itsy Bitsy Yoga™ through which she conducts classes, workshops, and training nationally. She lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Itsy Bitsy Yoga Poses to Help Your Baby Sleep Longer, Digest Better, and Grow Stronger By Helen Garabedian Fireside Copyright ©2004 Helen Garabedian All right reserved. ISBN: 0743243552 Introduction A baby's most natural state is bliss. Open, curious, and content, babies are designed to give and receive love. However, sometimes a baby's true state falls a little off kilter and needs help to rebalance. Since babies do not come with instruction manuals, I teach parents and caregivers simple yoga-based movements and techniques to help free babies from suffering from digestion troubles and liberate their restlessness into peaceful sleep and happiness. You, as the caregiver, don't need any yoga experience to calm your baby and help him or her grow strong. All you need to do is breathe, love, and move! What Is Yoga? The word yoga has acquired many translations over the centuries. According to The Heart of Yoga, by T. K. V. Desikachar, meanings of the word include "to unite," "to come together," "to tie the strands of the mind together," and "acting in such a way that all of our attention is directed toward the activity in which we are currently engaged." Yoga gives us insight. The practice of yoga with a baby can help parents and caregivers bond with the baby more deeply, and understand how best to care for them. When parents come to my yoga studio, they are not distracted by the outside world. Yoga can bring moms and dads closer to understanding and supporting their child's intentions, needs, and desires. Through yoga, babies sense their parents' trust and deep commitment to understanding and responsiveness as they move forward in developing their physical, social, intellectual, and emotional skills in the way that is aligned with each child's highest destiny. What Is Itsy Bitsy Yoga®? Itsy Bitsy Yoga is a unique blend of yoga postures, infant developmental movement, and parent/child bonding. In this book, you will find nearly seventy easy-to-learn and practical poses and techniques that benefit your child from birth to twenty-four months old. I have intertwined the cross-cultural jewels from the wisdom of an infant's moving body, yoga, and the latest research in the field of infant development to deliver a developmentally nutritious movement program for a parent and baby to enjoy together. In teaching yoga to facilitators and thousands of babies, toddlers, and parents, I have seen firsthand the benefits of yoga for babies: better sleep, improved digestion, relief from gas pains and mild colic, a stronger immune system, and an increase in body awareness and self-confidence. The Birth of Itsy Bitsy Yoga As a certified yoga teacher and infant developmental movement educator, I examine Hatha Yoga postures with the intention of adapting them for the nonverbal baby to do with or without a parent's help. The culmination of my professional background, twenty years of yoga and meditation practice, and