[blindkid] Won't Roll Over

[Leah]

I second what has already been written. Here are a few others:

1. Encourage play in sidelying. She may be able to use her top hand to  
touch a toy in this position and maintain interest.
2. Lying on her tummy, on mom or dad's tummy. If she really hates  
being prone, start her at a steep incline and slowly slump down lower,  
or do some situps to go back and forth between flat and more upright.
3. Make sure she does not have abdominal discomfort that makes her  
dislike of tummy time worse. Normal baby tummy aches or gas might need  
some help, or if she has reflux or other belly issues you might try to  
address them separately.
4. As someone else said, remember that her age is adjusted and don't  
worry about her being behind yet, rather focus on the level she is  
actually at (maybe 3 month?) and help her enjoy the challenges and  
pleasure of that level - that will help her to progress!
5. There is a booklet available from www.amajoy.net called Seven  
Recommendations for You and Your Baby that has some helpful  
suggestions for body positions for babies.
6. We found the Infant Developmental Movement Education work (from the  
School for Body-Mind Centering) to be very helpful with things like  
this and with development/movement issues in a very gentle and  
effective way. The Amajoy site has links to access local  
practitioners. It was so helpful for multiple issues for us, that I  
took a 3-summer training in the work to help my son more at home.

Lying on the stomach is important for developing full body flexion and  
toning the parasympathetic nervous system. I had a little one who  
hated tummy time but we compromised by having him sleep on tummy on a  
low incline wedge. I know it is rarely recommended to sleep on belly  
but we worked it out with our professionals. Eventually we got extra  
help with his movement (though he had long-term movement issues), and  
he began liking tummy time.

Leah

On Feb 12, 2009, at 12:00 PM, blindkid-request at nfbnet.org wrote:

>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:43:20 -0600
> From: "Carrie Gilmer" <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
> Subject: [blindkid] Won't Roll Over
> To: "'NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,	\(for parents of blind
> 	children\)'" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Message-ID: <49938ccc.48c3f10a.460c.fffffec2 at mx.google.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi I am writing for a new mom who does not have internet,
>
> My daughter is eight months old, LP we think, preemie, she does not  
> have a
> lot of curiousity yet. She does not like to be to her stomach or  
> roll over
> yet. How can I coax her to go on her stomach. When she was newborn she
> couldn't hold her head up and seemed to bang her face, and I think she
> started not liking to be on her stomach then. Has anyone had to coax  
> their
> baby to go on their stomach like this?