Nature designed a beautiful and fool-proof way for newborn infants to develop into strong and capable children and then adults. A newborn human baby goes from completely helpless to walking in the first year of life because of this beautiful process. During the first year of life, this process involves 10 sequential yet overlapping phases of physical development which I discussed here. When this process happens as nature intended it, we get healthy, strong, and happy toddlers.
There are however 10 things that can hijack your baby's physical development which can mean your baby is not as healthy, happy, or strong as they could be. When this development is hijacked, your child might be more susceptible to injury, obesity, and chronic pain throughout life.
If you have not read about the 10 phases of physical development during your baby's first year, read it here before moving on to the rest of this article. (Note: these phases might be completed anywhere from 9-16 months and the speed at which they happen is not important. What is important is that your baby moves through and masters each phase.)
| The 10 phases of baby physical development are:
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Now I want to talk about the 10 things that can hijack your baby's physical development and how you can spot them, avoid them, and help your baby get back on track if they've encountered them.
1. Shoes
Putting shoes on your baby can hijack their physical development. Yes, baby shoes are incredibly cute, but they can be very harmful to your baby's physical development. Stiff soled shoes should be avoided as much as possible especially anytime your baby is doing tummy time, crawling, playing, or walking. A stiff soled shoe does not allow your baby to grip the floor with her toes when rolling, crawling, squatting, or walking and this will slow her progress. Shoes also do not allow your baby to feel the ground and build the important neurological connections between her central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and her feet (which contain 200,000 nerve endings for a reason!).
Our somatosensory system (how we sense the physical sensations of our internal and external world), composed of mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, pain receptors, and proprioceptors, is negatively impacted when babies wear shoes. Developing a strong and sensitive somatosensory system during the first year of life is vitally important to our lifelong health. Making sure your baby is barefoot as much as possible when doing tummy time, rolling, crawling, playing, and walking will ensure your baby develops a well functioning somatosensory system.
Our somatosensory system (how we sense the physical sensations of our internal and external world), composed of mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, pain receptors, and proprioceptors, is negatively impacted when babies wear shoes. Developing a strong and sensitive somatosensory system during the first year of life is vitally important to our lifelong health. Making sure your baby is barefoot as much as possible when doing tummy time, rolling, crawling, playing, and walking will ensure your baby develops a well functioning somatosensory system.
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Because stiff soled shoes interfere with your baby's sensation and grip of the floor, they will get frustrated quicker and more often when trying to learn how to roll or crawl and this can lead to them pulling themselves up to a standing position before they are ready. Stiff soled shoes give your baby the false sense of stability from the large hard sole of the shoe and your baby will stand and may even walk sooner when in stiff soled shoes. This is a bad thing because they have not developed the internal stability and strength needed for standing and walking. Being barefoot allows your baby's arches to develop properly which are needed for a lifetime of pain free running, jumping, and living.
If you are going to put shoes on your baby, find the most soft-soled and flexible shoes you can find, and whenever your baby is at home on the floor to play, let them be barefoot. Some of the better soft soled baby shoes are Robeez, Bobux, FitKids, and Vivobarefoot. Look for shoes that are flat (no heel), flexible (in all directions), and have a wide toe box. Try to limit stiff soled shoes to photo shoots only!
If you are going to put shoes on your baby, find the most soft-soled and flexible shoes you can find, and whenever your baby is at home on the floor to play, let them be barefoot. Some of the better soft soled baby shoes are Robeez, Bobux, FitKids, and Vivobarefoot. Look for shoes that are flat (no heel), flexible (in all directions), and have a wide toe box. Try to limit stiff soled shoes to photo shoots only!
2. Car seats
Wait! Before you throw away your car seat let me explain myself. Car seats are essential for the safety of your baby every time they ride in a vehicle (keep your car seat and make sure you have it installed correctly). Car seats are bad when your baby spends excessive amounts of time in them. What is excessive? Anything more than is absolutely necessary (medical experts advise never more than 2 hours a day). The problem is car seats are shaped like a C and hold your baby's spine in a C-curve. Your baby was born with a C-curve but immediately started working (moving and playing - see prior blog post here) to eliminate their C-curve and turn it into a S-curve. Car seats also limit your baby's ability to move - wiggle, roll, arch, etc, and this will negatively affect your baby's physical development and health. Car seats also contribute to flat head syndrome - something you and your baby are best avoiding. The more time your baby spends in a car seat the slower their physical development will be.
 Try to avoid long car rides, multiple trips in the car a day, and carrying your baby in their carseat. Keeping your baby in their carseat can be convenient if they are sleeping, but know that sleeping in a carseat is not good for your baby's spine. Know that your baby will develop into a stronger, healthier, and happier baby the less time they spend in a carseat. |  |
3. Baby floor seats and support pillows
| Any device that helps your baby sit up before they can do it by themselves without support is harmful to their physical development. It is hard to resist the urge to get your baby sitting up, but don't rush perfection. Your baby and mother nature have the perfect plan figured out and don't need our devices to help them. Let your baby have lots of tummy time, floor time, and crawling time, and they will develop strong capable muscles that will allow them to sit up unsupported by themselves when they are ready. Any device that helps your baby sit up hijacks their physical development. | |
4. Baby saucers and activity centers
Yes I know Babies R Us, Walmart, Target, Amazon, and every other baby store has 10-20 baby saucers and baby activity centers for sale and many mom's talk about how great they can be to keep your baby occupied, happy, and out of trouble, but I do not recommend them. These websites state things like: "encourage the growth of your baby's cognitive and motor skills with stationary baby activity centers" and "designed in collaboration with a pediatrician our baby activity center supports a 'whole body' approach to play and learning" and "keep baby busy and entertained with a baby activity center designed to promote dexterity and learning".
The more time your baby spends in a baby saucer or activity center the worst your baby's physical and cognitive development is likely to be. The movement your baby does on the floor in the first year of life (read here) is essential for the neurological and physical development of your baby. Having your baby contained in an activity center might make your job of cleaning house, doing laundry, or cooking dinner easier, but the trade-off of negatively impacting your baby's development might not be worth it. Try to think of ways to allow your baby free play on the floor where you are still close enough to keep an eye on her and make sure she's safe. Put colorful toys, rattles, stacking toys, and your baby's other favorite things spread around on the floor and let them explore and find them. If your baby fusses when you put them on the floor, make sure to get down on the floor and play with your baby. You'll notice the more time your baby gets to be on the floor, the more they will like that time on the floor.
The more time your baby spends in a baby saucer or activity center the worst your baby's physical and cognitive development is likely to be. The movement your baby does on the floor in the first year of life (read here) is essential for the neurological and physical development of your baby. Having your baby contained in an activity center might make your job of cleaning house, doing laundry, or cooking dinner easier, but the trade-off of negatively impacting your baby's development might not be worth it. Try to think of ways to allow your baby free play on the floor where you are still close enough to keep an eye on her and make sure she's safe. Put colorful toys, rattles, stacking toys, and your baby's other favorite things spread around on the floor and let them explore and find them. If your baby fusses when you put them on the floor, make sure to get down on the floor and play with your baby. You'll notice the more time your baby gets to be on the floor, the more they will like that time on the floor.
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Baby saucers and activity centers are harmful to babies that cannot stand on the own yet because you are getting them comfortable with standing on their feet but before they have the strength, function, and balance to do it on their own. The more time they spend in the saucer the more likely they are to start trying to stand on their own which is the opposite of what you want if you want a healthy baby. Anything that encourages your baby to stand before they have mastered the 7 previous physical development phases will undermine their health. Baby's who have mastered all the 10 phases of physical development should also not spend time in a baby saucer because it restricts their movement and undermines their strength they have worked so hard to build.
5. The race to walk
Walking - it is the most exciting thing to watch your baby do! We all look forward to the day our baby walks upright and if our children are older, we all remember our kids first steps. Humans are bipeds after all, meaning we are designed to walk on 2 feet, and when your baby starts walking it means they are growing up, getting mobile, and becoming independent.
The temptation to help our baby start walking is always there. Most parents have the tendency to want to start holding our babies upright from a very young age. We want to hold their hands and get them standing on their feet. And we've all seen the youtube videos of parents claiming their baby is trying to walk when only 3 months old. I call this the race to walk and I think all parents are pulled into this race in some way.
While all these moms and dads have good intentions and a loving heart, they just don't understand childhood development. Encouraging your baby to stand and walk before they've mastered the 9 physical developmental steps that come before walking is actually going to hijack your baby's physical development and may even lead to increased chance of injury, obesity, and pain throughout life. (Make sure to read about the 10 baby physical development phases if you have not)
This "walking" behavior in young babies (up to 6 months of age) is called the step or walking or dancing reflex. It is a normal primitive reflex that does not mean your baby is ready to or is trying to walk. This reflex is probably very closely related to the "breast crawl" where newborn babies when placed on their mother's chest immediately after birth will lay quiet for 30-45 minutes and then start moving toward their mother's breast and start nursing unassisted. The walking reflex helps them push themselves up their mother's chest in order to nurse. The walking reflex will disappear naturally in babies between 3 and 6 months of age as the frontal cortex of the brain develops. Remember, just because it looks like your baby is trying to walk doesn't mean they are ready to. Let nature take its course over your baby's first year of life and your baby will walk unassisted when they are truly ready.
This "walking" behavior in young babies (up to 6 months of age) is called the step or walking or dancing reflex. It is a normal primitive reflex that does not mean your baby is ready to or is trying to walk. This reflex is probably very closely related to the "breast crawl" where newborn babies when placed on their mother's chest immediately after birth will lay quiet for 30-45 minutes and then start moving toward their mother's breast and start nursing unassisted. The walking reflex helps them push themselves up their mother's chest in order to nurse. The walking reflex will disappear naturally in babies between 3 and 6 months of age as the frontal cortex of the brain develops. Remember, just because it looks like your baby is trying to walk doesn't mean they are ready to. Let nature take its course over your baby's first year of life and your baby will walk unassisted when they are truly ready.
6. Baby walkers
Anything that tries to help speed up natural development is not a good thing. Just as nine full months of gestation is best for fetuses, a full year or more of natural movement is needed to develop your baby's strength and function allowing them to walk. Baby walkers are not going to help your baby be a better walker and in fact will probably make walking harder for your baby. A baby walker gives your baby support which will allow them to start walking forward very fast, but they are not learning the very important balance and stability needed for unassisted walking. It's like giving a Ferrari to your child on their 16th birthday before they've had a driving lesson. It's a recipe for disaster.
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Instead of getting your son or daughter a baby walker, spend more time down on the floor playing with them, and encouraging them to roll, army crawl, and crawl. When they are strong enough, they will stand up and walk on their own and will be much better walkers and runners in time than if they would have used a baby walker. Encouraging your baby to stand and "walk" when they have not mastered the 9 phases of development that come before walking is hijacking your baby's physical development.
7. Baby jumpers
Your baby loves the baby jumper! He will jump and jump with a big smile on his face. How could this possibly be bad for your baby? Eating ice-cream and cake for every meal will also put a big smile on your baby's face, but we all know that isn't good for them.
| | Like most devices we have created in the last 100 years to "help" babies do something, baby jumpers actually interfere with your baby's normal, natural, and healthy development. Baby jumpers let your baby stand upright and push off the floor repeatedly which is promoted as helping build leg muscle strength. The problem is than being held upright with the seat of the jumper means your baby isn't building the all important balance, proprioception, stabilizing strength, and coordination to stand and move upright on his own. |
| It's like going to the gym and only doing leg curls and leg extensions for a month and expecting that to be good training to complete the American Ninja Warrior course. You might have quad and hamstring strength, but not the balance, agility, or coordination to complete the Quintuple Steps, Spinning Log, or Warped Wall. | |
By using the baby jumper, your baby is not learning how to hold his load joints (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders) vertically as he moves. Nature designed the 10 phases of development during the first year of life for a reason: to perfectly prepare your baby for the riggers and joy of movement for their next 100 years of life. A baby jumper hijacks your baby's natural progression of strength building and function development and can cause problems throughout life. It is best to allow your baby to develop as nature intended it and keep your baby out of the baby jumper.
8. Using carrying devices instead of our hands
| A quick google search for baby carrying device will come up with 7.9 million results and hundreds of different types and brands for sale. There are wraps, ring slings, pouch slings, meh dai, soft frame carriers, and hard frame carriers. While carrying your baby is much better than using a stroller, the wrong carrier can cause hip or back problems in your baby, and using any carrier too much is bad for your baby. This site has 12 benefits of babywearing which I agree with, but the problem with baby carriers is that they put your baby in one position for a long period of time and restrict your baby's movement. | |
"But my baby is peacefully sleeping." Yes, your baby might be asleep, but it's important to compare sleeping in a baby carrier to the alternatives. Sleeping in a baby carrier is probably better than sleeping in a car seat or stroller, but not as good as you holding your baby with your arms or letting your baby sleep in their crib. If you watch your baby sleep in their crib you'll probably notice your baby will move, twist, turn, roll over, etc during a nap. This movement is natural and good for their developing body and mind. When you hold your baby, they can move and change positions easier than when constricted in a carrier, and because your arms will get tired you'll naturally switch how you're holding your baby also. This is good for your baby and for your strength and function! My recommendation is to carry your baby using your arms when you can, put your baby down and let your baby play on the floor as much as possible, let your baby sleep in their crib as much as possible, and use a baby carrier only when you have to.
9. Not letting your baby struggle and get frustrated
| You would do anything to protect your baby and keep her safe. You also want your baby to be happy and successful. Because of that, you are not going to like it when I say: Not letting your baby struggle and get frustrated is hijacking your baby's physical development. But once you understand why I am saying this you are going to understand and agree with me. | |
When you're a newborn baby, you can't really do anything physically except wiggle and kick, scream and cry, nurse and sleep, and poop and pee. When you're a newborn, holding your head steady is really hard, let alone thinking about rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking, or running. But all newborn babies will one day learn how to do all those things and more. Parents hear about the importance of tummy time during pregnancy classes and from their pediatrician, but most babies when put on their stomach for the first time will cry and look miserable. Our parental instincts tell us to stop our baby's suffering and pick up our baby. But this might not be the best thing to do.
Trying something new, especially when it's a physical challenge, is hard. But practice makes perfect and the only way your baby is going to build up their spinal extensor muscles is by doing a lot of tummy time. If your baby cries when put on his stomach, get down on the floor with him and engage with him. Play peak-a-boo, giggle and laugh, tickle your baby, get some toys and rattles, anything to keep your baby engaged. You can even lie down on your back and put your baby on your stomach/chest so you're face to face. Start with 3-5 minutes of tummy time several times a day even if your baby cries and complains. Always get down on the floor with your baby, especially if they are unhappy. Your baby will soon start to enjoy tummy time and no longer complain.
Each of the 10 phases of baby physical development might cause your baby to struggle and get frustrated , but know that what is best for your baby is following the same procedure as with tummy time. Get down on the floor with your baby. Engage with your baby. Let them struggle, but also let them know you are there with them. When your baby, as an infant, learns to deal with failure, and then learns to overcome failure and succeed, are lessons they will use to succeed throughout their life.
Each of the 10 phases of baby physical development might cause your baby to struggle and get frustrated , but know that what is best for your baby is following the same procedure as with tummy time. Get down on the floor with your baby. Engage with your baby. Let them struggle, but also let them know you are there with them. When your baby, as an infant, learns to deal with failure, and then learns to overcome failure and succeed, are lessons they will use to succeed throughout their life.
10. Your lack of function
What could your function have to do with your baby's physical development? A lot. When I say function I'm talking about your strength, flexibility, mobility, endurance, balance, etc. Your baby needs lots of tummy time, play time, rolling practice, crawling time, etc to develop a fully functional and capable musculoskeletal system. The only way your baby is going to do that is with your participation in the process. The more time you spend interacting with, playing with, and being on the floor with your baby at their level the healthier your baby will be. Quality floor time can only really happen on the floor and with your participation all the way down on the floor with your baby.
| Getting face to face on your stomach during tummy time will keep your baby engaged and interested in mastering those movements and building those muscles. Getting on the floor and encouraging your baby to roll over for a toy or to reach you is the key to your baby getting good at rolling. Crawling with your baby is the key to your baby mastering crawling. The more time you spend standing above your baby the faster they will get frustrated and the faster they will want to stand up to try to get on your level. This is not good for your baby's development. | |
I understand it might be hard to get down on the floor and it might be uncomfortable to crawl around with you baby and you're going to get sore from this activity. But that's good for you! The more you restore your function so you can play with your baby the better both you and your baby's health will be! This is true both for the first year of life and your baby's mastery of the 10 phases of baby development, but also for the rest of you and your child's life.
| | When your baby is 2 years old and starts to play on the playground equipment, the best thing you can do is get on the equipment with them and play with them. When your child gets to be 5 years old and start playing soccer, the best thing you can do for them is play soccer with them (or even coach their team as I've done for my kids for 10+ seasons). Family hikes, bike rides, swimming together, playing tag, and throwing a frisbee are the things that will build and maintain your children's musculoskeletal strength and function they need to be happy and healthy adults. |
Learning to love movement, exercise, and physical play during childhood is essential to lifelong health. Children who don't learn to love movement, exercise, and physical play will be less active throughout life, more prone to obesity, heart disease, cancer, depression, injuries, and chronic pain.
Do you kids a favor and don't hijack their physical development and instead encourage their natural progression through the 10 phases of baby development.
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