10 Household Items to Help Babies with or without Developmental Delay: Help your Baby Crawl, Walk and Get Strong!

So to get started, the first thing is floor space.

Tada! I mean, that sounds pretty basic.

And perhaps if you listen to the show regularly, you will know how much I talk about giving your baby time to spend on the floor.

It is essential for their development.

You will also know if you've listened to me before, that I have a real issue with how much we use equipment.

Now equipment is there to help us.

It's actually not there to help baby.

And there are very few things on the market that are for babies without additional difficulties, without movement disorders and difficulties.

So I'm talking about your baby without any of those things.

that equipment is not going to promote their development.

That equipment is not going to be something that they need, no matter how it's marketed.

And so the most important thing is that your baby has time in your arms with you or sleeping, you know, in their cots.

Otherwise they are on the floor in different positions moving.

Now, we are all terrified of tummy time i know so i'm just going to go ahead and talk about as if this is time where you're just putting your baby down on the floor to play the idea is eventually they will roll over and be on their tummy on that floor but a new baby you might use a floor space just to put them lying on their backs because it's safe they can't fall off and then over time this little baby will start to move so I'm talking obviously not in the early early weeks of life because a teeny tiny baby at this stage will probably be put in a cot or in a baby carrier you won't just kind of put them down and when you do just put them down there are a lot of pieces of equipment on the market out there that are for putting your baby down flat on their backs and and I would say you know listen to my other episodes this is not an episode about equipment but when we are looking for a safe space to put our babies down on so that they can start to move when they're a little bit older you would initially put them down on their backs and then they start to wriggle and jiggle and grab their legs and grab their feet and flip over to their sides and roll to their tummy that's the kind of thing that we're looking for a safe space for them to be doing that and so When I talk about a floor space, ideally it's a carpeted floor because that's more comfortable for your baby.

So my number one tip to parents is to create a floor area where your baby can be.

Now, a lot of homes I go into are apartments.

There's not a lot of space and most of them are tiled or wooden floors.

because it's usually like a continuous space into the kitchen area and so I say to parents pick an area where you're not walking all the time even to the side ever so slightly and then if it is tiled or wooden you need to get a mat or you know something that your baby can lie on.

Now I'm going to possibly be a little bit frustrating in that I've just told you you're not going to have to buy anything but this is the one area that I'm going to ask you to look at spending some money and buying something.

There are 10 more things that we're going to go through and not one of them will you have to purchase so please stick with me and don't judge me for saying you don't have to buy anything and then telling you you need to buy something for this but it's because a floor area that is designated for your baby to be put down to spend time on maybe with you or later as they get a bit older where you kind of leave them and you step away is is essential and it needs to be designated for your baby because it needs to be a safe space where you can obviously your baby's always going to be supervised but perhaps it's um on an open plan room where you're just in the kitchen

you know

doing something and you can see your baby um so i'm not talking about you know where you totally go off and leave your baby but it has to be safe because this is the area if we leave our babies long enough they will start rolling over accidentally to their tummies which will then teach them how to roll over naturally.

And you may have been looking down, chopping a carrot, look up and your baby's on their tummy.

So we want it to be a safe space where they can do that and end up on their tummies with you kind of looking away for just a moment.

And so it needs to be not right up against a wall where if they do roll onto their tummy, that they are stuck against a wall.