The Story of Carlota from Day One

Carlota is a second-generation Better Baby, as my mom did the program with my sister and me. Regina, my wife, and I are doing the program with our two girls. Carlota is our eldest.

I wanted to do the best program possible and give her the most opportunity for her to develop new options in her life. So, the day she was born, we had prepared The Institutes crawling track to take with us to the hospital. And the moment that everybody left, and we were alone with her, we unwrapped her from the bundle she was in, and we put her in the prone position on her track.

She instantly started to breathe more deeply, and to move her arms and legs and push with her big toes to move forward. It was very hard for her, her face was red, you could see all the effort she was making, she was crying, so we inclined the track a little bit, and she started to move forward more effectively. She went down her track, it had just been a few hours since she was born. You could see she how hard she worked for every inch down that track.

Amazing and Affirming

It was an amazing moment. It was very reaffirming for us that what we were doing was good for her. It was evident, she had an option she wouldn´t have had, if we hadn’t given her the opportunity.

If we had kept her in a bundle, she would not have been able to move. We were taking the “path less traveled by” and it was extremely reaffirming and empowering to see results so immediately and so irrefutable.

No Comparisons

We didn’t really compare Carlota to other kids, our measurement was truly herself, but it was amazing how much positive feedback we received from her being able to hold her head up, and to be so awake and aware of her surroundings. We were doing the program outlined in “How Smart is your Baby” the best we could.

Opportunity but no forward progress off the track

We had made a 6-foot track at home and that was where she slept, and spend most of her time when she was not being fed. Soon, we were doing at least 10 inclined tracks a day. But she couldn’t move on the flat surface. As time went by, we didn’t see a more organized way of crawling, like in a cross-pattern.

Mobility Red Flags for me

I don’t know if my expectations were wrong, the pediatrician didn’t find anything to worry about, no one was expecting cross-pattern  crawling; but with so much opportunity I felt she should be starting to creep, and you could see she wasn’t getting that much better at crawling. She was gaining a lot of weight, and that made it even harder for her.

Only Dad, the Profile and The Staff saw the problem

There were no alarms to sound, just the mobility column on The Institutes Developmental Profile that showed she was not yet creeping.

It is hard to write this, because the delay I was perceiving could have been entirely in my mind. NO ONE in our environment other than me, had the expectation for her to be able to creep earlier.

The Program is enhanced to speed her progress

So, after consulting with the Staff of The Institutes, we increased the frequency of the tracks to 30 times a day. When we did so she started to crawl on the flat surface for the first time, but she was using both arms at the same time – no cross pattern movement. She was a bit over 6 months old.

Increased Frequency Yields Results

A month later, she started to crawl in the cross pattern, and then she immediately got up on her hands and knees and started to creep.

We may never know why she needed five months of opportunity to organize and coordinate her movement to crawl in cross-pattern and eventually creep. Whatever caused that long runway to creeping is not there anymore.

Greatest Victory

It was handled so rapidly, it was not noticeable to anyone but us. But THAT is our biggest victory:

We will NEVER know how long it would have taken her to crawl and creep and walk, if we hadn’t done the program, or if there was something there causing a delay.

There are so many babies now who do not move at all in the first year or are struggling to move properly, or to eat properly, or to play with others, or to communicate effectively. There are so many labels and syndromes for children now describing every symptom and causing such fear and confusion for new parents.

What a wonderful thing it is to provide stimulation and opportunity from day one and solve a problem simply and easily before it even became a problem.

That is exactly what we did.

The Big Lesson

Today she walks long distances and is a good runner and a great swimmer. Every time something is hard, and she wants to give up, I like to show her the videos of the day she was born so she can see herself struggle hard to achieve something great.

That was day one of her program.