This One's For The Mamas and Papas

Here’s a shout-out to all of those mamas and papas out there! This post is for those of us that have little ones.

We’ve all been there…. it’s early in the morning and you roll out of bed to get your crying child. You bend over to pick him up and BAM, you’re hit with a twinge of back pain.

Or you’re leaning over to put your squirmy child into the car seat in some awkward position and you wrench your neck.

It doesn’t feel great when these things happen, and lifting a small boulder all day on little sleep increases the risk of injury.

Here’s where we enter.

We’re here to give you some tips and tricks to help you care for your little tyke without destroying yourself in the process.

The first rule of thumb when lifting your child (or anything for that matter) is to bend down and get him as close to your center of mass as possible.

By bringing the weight close to your center of mass, you are automatically reducing how much weight you are lifting. When you hold the weight out away from you, you create a longer lever arm. In physics the longer lever arm causes the weight that you experience to be greater.

Once you’ve positioned your little bundle of fidgety weight close to your center of mass you want to tighten your core muscles before lifting. This will help keep your back in a solid position while you lift and allow for the right muscles to do the heavy lifting.

To do this think about drawing the stomach in and tightening the muscles that run along the length of the low back. The tighter you contract these muscles the more stable your back will become and the more protection you will offer it.

Now that you have your child close to your center of mass and your core engaged you are ready to lift! Use your big muscles like your glutes and quads to do the heavy lifting and keep your core engaged all the way through.

Especially consider these lifting principles if you are carrying your child in an infant carrier. Try not to hold the carrier low to one side of your body. If you are able to, hold the carrier with two hands in front of you, close to your body, with your core engaged.

Another option would be to simply make the task lighter by waiting to to put your child in the carrier until it’s in the car.

Lifting with good form can be a challenge, especially when sleep deprived. Getting into a habit of doing it right, especially when you’re feeling awake, will make it easier to carryover that good habit when your feeling tired or lazy.

Finally, on a different note, let’s not forget the mental side of things. It is imperative as a parent to also make time for yourself to do the things you love and that make you happy. We’ve found this helps us be better parents in that we have more energy, patience, and strength to care for our son!