|
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
 
| 1) Id be around to help the baby if necessary.
2)Babies/toddlers often stand on their head. Mine certainly did, and never suffered.
3)Its well known that corrective standing baby tools such as baby walkers impair a babies development. |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 163
| Vibes, sorry to contradict you but the latest research on infant development doesn't support the statement that baby walkers impede or inhibit or impair a babies development. There are as many pediatricians that support them as those who do not. The empirical data don't support that assistance devices have any long term effect on that speed with which babies eventually walk on their own and certainly there are no data to support any long term effect on child's walking, leg development, etc. So it's not only not well known, but it is more opinion than anything else. Like all firmly held opinions, people can selectively find data to support whichever side they want. So I am not advocating the use of walkers, or the use of walls in headstand, etc. I am only saying that there can be valid opinions on both sides since there are not clear facts that support or disprove either position, only opinions.
|
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| Hi Seeker. Its good to contradict.No need for sorry. I am saying that in the long run - later in life, one can be effected if forced into standing before the nervous system has formed the necessary patterns of movement to get there. Even in adulthood one can suffer from certain ailments, stemming from poor organization, due to a lack of strong foundation, if one is forced to walk before crawling. Ive done two profesional baby massage teacher trainings, aswell as having studied and written a thesis on baby developmet . Much evidence strongly agree on this. Yes eventually babies will learn to walk. However if small details in a babies development are missed problems will naturally occur.Even problems of speech and breathing can occur from lack of using the sucking action (for milk) well. Interestigly enough they can often be improved by going through them later. |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 163
| Ah, I see. thanks for the clarification. |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
  
| One big difference between standing on our feet and standing on our heads. Standing on our feet is probably 95% instinctive and 5% learned and it is learned at a very young age. Standing on our heads is 100% learned and is learned (for the sake of this conversation - even those who learn headstand as children must re-learn it) in adulthood. Children who are not successful in learning to stand and walk would be considered to have a distinct disadvantage to living a typical life. Yoga students who never learn to do headstand away from a wall will probably be able to function quite well and live a long and productive life.
For the record, I am an early childhood educator and infant toddler educator and have worked with children for about 35 years, the past 15 with children under the age of 3, the past 10 with children under the age of 18 months. I have observed and guided many, many children in the adventure of learning to stand and walk. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| Ofcourse. Even people who learn to do triangle with or without a wall can live a long and productive life. That is not what this thread is about.LOL |
|
| |
|
| vibes - 2010-02-02 12:56 AM
Even people who learn to do triangle with or without a wall can live a long and productive life.
This is a total myth!!!
|
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 113
Location: Uppsala, Sweden | If you experience your legs as too short, when trying ordinary headstand, then you probably should not be too eager trying to get into headstand from the lotus position (urdhva padma shirshasana) - I guarantee you that is an experience of really 'short legs', and a asana that requires both flexibility and a lot of core strength, as well as technique and bodily/spatial awareness.
For a beginner however, the problems are similar, i.e. initially a lack of core strength and flexibility etc., and that is why you should learn sarvangasana (shoulder stand) before trying shirshasana (headstand).
When you have acquired the ability to stand on your shoulders (not your cervical vertebrae) with a rather straight body, breathing without too much constriction for at least a couple of minutes, then you might be ready to try headstand - preferably for the first few times with a teacher standing by, or (if you have not learnt how to fall, and/or are afraid) against a wall.
It is also helpful to learn the chakrasana (wheel, but not the urdhva dhanurasana version), by which I mean from lying on your back (after sarvangasana sequence with halasana etc), on inhale bring your feet/legs up and over your head while putting down your hands beside your ears and pushing down into the floor while rolling over into chaturanga dandasana. You can also practice the forwards tumbling motion, as it usually would happen if falling out of headstand, by gently moving into halasana (plow) from adho mukha shvanasana (downward facing dog). Practicing these rolling methods safely (under the guidance of a teacher), will prepare you for the very likely contingency of falling out of headstand 'the wrong way', i.e. tumbling forwards, because then you would not be falling on your back or ass as much as rolling down out of the headstand.
Small children generally do not have the necessary core strength and stability to do headstand safely, and thus they are more likely to compress their cervical vertebrae, or maybe even hurt themselves, than to receive any benefits from the asana. Elderly students need to practice headstand cautiously, for obvious reasons, but the potential benefits are far greater in adults than for children doing headstand - as long as there are no medical reasons as to not do shirshasana.
Edited by Iraputra 2010-02-27 7:43 AM
|
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| Small children do headstands and variants playfully. Sometimes with and sometimes without compressing vertbrae. Its not about core strength. Core strength is nothing more than hype. |
|
| |
getting into headstand and "short legs"
