PUTTING THE MOVES ON:

Using Motion to Calm Your Fussy Baby

When Sofea was in the middle of a scream fest, I would pick Sofea who is five (5) months old, sit on the sofa with my feet on the ground, and bounce up and down in quick, jerky little motions like a child on a pogo stick.

Crying Moment: How to calm her?

According to Karp (2002);

Babies love to bounce. Why else do we call our infants bouncing baby girls and boys? Over the centuries, parents have perfected countless innovative ways to jiggle their unhappy tots into tranquility. Here are the Top Ten:

1. Baby slings and carriers
2. Dancing (with quick little moves up and down)
3. Infant swings
4. Rhythmic pats on the back or bottom
5. Hammocks
6. Rocking in a rocking chair
7. Car rides
8. Vibrating bouncy seats
9. Bouncing on an exercise ball
10. Brisks walks.

                                                                                 (in a book:The Happiest Baby on the Block,p.156)

BOOKSMOOCH:GLENN DOMAN, 2002

Four Degrees of Sensory Problems

Human sensory includes visual, auditory or tactile. In the brain-injured child there are four degrees of sensory problems. These were:

1.The total absence of visual, auditory or tactile intake (blindness,deafness, insensateness). These were disastrous to the brain-injured child if permitted to continue.

2. Too little visual, auditory or tactile intake (hard of seeing, hard of hearing, hard of feeling).These were overwhelming handicaps to the brain-injured child if they were left unhandled.

3. Too much visual, auditory or tactile intake (oversensitive reception of such stimuli). This was equally overwhelming.

4.Chaotic visual, auditory and tactile intake (receiving distorted visual, auditory or tactile information as, for example, the visual information received by the child with strabismus). This could likewise be discouraging, disconcerting or frightening.

Reference: Doman, Glenn: What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child New York, NY :Squareone Publisher (2002)