bodywork

Oral exercises for babies

Table of Contents for all blog posts

Oral Exercises help a baby improve feeding skills!

The uterus is a tight place, and birth is a bumpy ride! All babies need some time and a bit of help, to “unwind” post-birth - some more/some less. For babies with oral tension (possible ties), torticollis and other body tension/asymmetry, bodywork is especially important. For more info about ties and bodywork - which are very connected to the topic of oral exercises - please check those linked pages along with the information on this page!

Starting Oral Exercises - basic set of skills - tongue lateralizing (side to side motion), suck training, palate work (to desensitize a gag, for example), chewing for jaw strength, stretching for the cheeks, and more.

  • Here are a few great videos showing my first go-tos for the basic set of Infant Oral Exercises:

  • The Sleeping Tongue Posture Hold - excellent for promoting tongue strength, closed mouth breathing, and also can be used after a tongue tie release to do tongue stretches.

Enhancing oral exercises with toys and teethers - There are many that enhance oral exericses (this is just a small sample, I’m happy to send a list with links for places to get these items)

Instagram pages to follow for oral exercises (and more!)

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