crawling baby

Crawling — a Surprising Implication for Every Age!

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The theme for this week … crawling’s importance to health at all ages!

How does crawling benefit my child, and even me?

Crawling is generally thought of as a notable milestone for your baby as they grow, transforming from stationary wigglers to little individuals able to explore.

The following study discusses the many facets of crawling, and the health impacts beyond infancy.

Effects of Crawling before Walking: Network Interactions and Longitudinal Associations in 7-Year-Old Children

The article reveals that crawling may be the most effective way to increase early interaction between body composition, cardiovascular system, lung function, motor competence, and physical fitness. Read more

Cara with Michele Katz

Families, Trauma, and How Micromovements Help

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There are so many ways trauma can impact us!

Obvious traumas are injuries and accidents.

Less obvious traumas include:

  • medical procedures
  • emotional trauma
  • birth trauma
  • illness

How many traumas have you or a family member experienced?

Recently we shared our model of how Bridging helps to quickly get your body back on track after these traumas.

You can reference that diagram and discussion here. Read more

Cara with new mom

Is a New Mom’s Childbirth Trauma Linked to Anxiety and Sports Performance Challenges?

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Anxiety and trauma resulting from childbirth, especially for C-section moms

In a prior BLOG post I shared how the diaphragm, breathing, and lower body interconnections are all related, and most importantly, impact anxiety.

One of the most common reasons we find for moms to feel anxious, as well as reluctant to restart activity, relates to postpartum recovery, especially when a C-section was involved. There are specific reasons why your body just isn’t putting itself back together after a C-section. Something to do with cutting through seven (yes, 7!) layers to get to the baby??

Take a look at our newest BridgingĀ® Insider YouTube video featuring Kira. She was still impacted from her childbirth and C-section experience. You will also see what changed following some BridgingĀ® support. Read more

baby feet

Feet Pain? How Does Understanding Early Development Help You Feel Better?

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Fun facts about feet

Feet have no bones at birth!

The bones are still forming, and what we think of as bones is actually cartilage. The bones form later in the first year, which is why shoes aren’t recommended at this early age.

200,000 nerve endings!

You have so many nerves and types of sensory receptors in your feet. This is why sock seams and grains of sand can feel so annoying!

Read more

babies

We’ve Been Working with Babies! What We’ve Learned …

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Happy New Year!

Sharing some reflections …

The most amazing part of 2021 began in late January with a text from a friend.

“Can you help my friend’s baby?”

Helping one newborn led to helping several, which we followed developmentally over the past year. The experience has been both insightful and inspirational. Watching weekly and monthly changes with these little ones was like seeing the developmental chart come to life.

The whole experience has been a vivid reminder of the power of the BridgingĀ® framework, which is rooted in early movement development. This essential foundation matters for everyone — at every age.

Here’s more about the babies …

Read more

building core strength

Crazy Question: What If Your Core Never Really Worked the Right Way?

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Core activation fiction

Do you have to work harder than others to keep a strong and active core?

Looking for clues to unresolved pain, stiffness, or anxiety — all common when the core activation isn’t fully developed?

The sports industry, exercise world, and pop culture would have us believe that all we need for a great core is more — more exercise, more equipment, and more discipline. Really???Ā  Read more

infant

Your Foundation to a Strong Core

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A mom recently wrote us to ask a question…

Her son was told he needed better core strength to swim faster. In the past, they had considered using a device to activate his core, but opted not to. Did they lose their window of opportunity to help his core?

The answer is no, they didn’t. Here are some insights as to why BridgingĀ® is still able to change his core activation. Read more

father and child in a tense moment

Struggling with a Child’s Behavior?

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The Link between Micromovements and Behaviors

Behavioral Reactions: Even-tempered? Anxious? Quick-tempered?

Your child’s temperament should be able to shift up and down to meet the changing situations of their days and weeks. Their reactions should rise to meet the occasion and then calm back down. This is known as modulation.

Stress happens when a child’s behavior ramps up like a rocket or gets stuck in high alert. Both of these are examples of poor modulation. Read more

baby at birth

Beyond Concussion: Head Injuries at Birth

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The unexpected head injury — birth

As we explore head injuries this month it is easy to overlook events from our very entry into this world.

There are so many ways that a baby’s head gets stressed at birth. Yes, there is supposed to be lots of stress at birth. However, in a number of birth scenarios there is an inordinate level of stress. Some of the birth scenarios include when the head positioning is oriented wrong, baby is breech or sunnyside-up, has torticolis or has a wrapped umbilical cord. Read more

tummy time

Visual-Motor System Need an Upgrade, or Just an Update?

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Shoulder and head strength, hand-eye coordination, hand function, and more — so many essential postural and motor skills emanate from tummy time!

What may not be so apparent? The same fundamental laddered skills related to tummy time support our visual-motor function and are needed at every age. Read more