Carrying babies and toddlers can be a pain in the neck, back, arms…

Well, we just can't stop carrying our children, so what do we do?  Unfortunately, the pains and aches are added to by the fact that during pregnancy the flexibility, posture and strength of the body changes.  Often part of this is a weakness in the core muscles of the back and abdomen, which are essential in maintaining a strong and healthy back.

Also, our children grow and get heavier; it is easy to gain an injury to our body.  The key to managing such injuries is to prevent them!

Tips to avoid injury when carrying your children:

• Watch carefully the way you lift.  Bend your knees not your back and hips. Use your legs.
• Keep the child as close as possible.
• Avoid rotating your back while lifting.
• Take a break when you can.
• Try alternating the side you are carrying on, or carry in the middle.
• Commence some abdominal and back muscle strengthening exercise. Something like Pilates is great!

How we carrying our children also promotes their physical development.  First of all they need to gain head control and the muscles in their neck are gradually used and strengthened.  We can help this by carrying them so they can lift their head to the side if carried on angle facing away from your body. 

You can also carry them like they are sitting in a little seat made by your arms.  An extremely important way to enable your baby to strengthen their neck muscles is to give them lots of tummy time so they can hold their head up and turn it side to side.  If they fuss and are unsettled with this, don't give up, you made need some support and ideas from a physiotherapist on ways to promote this activity.

As baby gets older, they start to gain use of their trunk muscles and can tilt their body to the side to balance, that's when you can begin carrying on your hip, but remember not to favour one side, both sides of baby's body need the practise, and you need to even out the load on your back! 

As your baby grows and becomes a toddler, there are still many times that we need to pick them up, but avoid direct lifting. 

• Try and sit down and get them to climb up onto your lap for that cuddle. 
• When putting them in the bath, avoid the direct lift and assist them to step over the bath, so you minimise how much weight you have to take…work together and encourage them to develop their own body movements and control, while still keeping them safe with complete hands on assistance and supervision. 
• Use the stroller when you’re out, the time getting it out of the boot is worth it rather than having to hitch them on your hip when they are too tired to walk any further!

Remember, they are getting heavy now, and you have to look after yourself and prevent injury and exhaustion in yourself.  Taking the time to plan how you do things now will pay off in stopping that back, neck or shoulder ache.

This article was kindly written for Bub Hub by Blackburn North Physiotherapy Centre, members of the Australian Physiotherapy Association. 

ph:  (03) 9877 7304
address:  74 Surrey Road, Blackburn North  VIC   3130