Baby Exercise Program Aims to Boost Survival Rate in Poor Countries
A new infant exercise program is revealing encouraging results among a select group of babies living in poor families in the developing world, according to an international Christian child advocacy ministry.
Babies registered with Compassion International's Child Survival Program (CSP) are demonstrating increased muscle strength, coordination and motor skills after participating in a new test program using an exercise regimen created by BabyBuilders, reported Compassion on Friday.
"These may seem like simple achievements, but they have far-reaching implications," said Rebeca Harcharik, Compassion child survival specialist, in a statement. "Many of the countries Compassion works in have babies who don't live to see their fifth birthday because of the lack of basic health, food and developmental resources."
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The exercise curriculum – implemented in over 30 Compassion CSPs in Kenya, India and the Philippines – aims to help mothers and caregivers prevent developmental delays in their children.
The program includes stimulation techniques aimed to increase the babies' strength in their neck, shoulders and stomach. The workout also improves the babies' balance, flexibility and equilibrium so they can independently sit and stand up. Other features of the regimen are hand-eye coordination exercise and grasping skills.
Researchers say that that the first five years are a crucial period in a child's development and will directly affect the child's adult life. Brain development is almost entirely completed by age two.
"Certainly moms are coming to know the Lord through the ministry. Certainly children are developing," said Gregg Keen, Compassion program director of child ministry, to Mission Network News. "A key issue for us is that we're trying to reach children who very likely would not survive to their fifth birthday in the absence of this program."
Compassion International is one of the world's largest Christian child development organizations, working with more than 65 denominations and thousands of indigenous church partners in Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Since 1952, Compassion has helped more than 1 million children.
Compassion plans to introduce the BabyBuilder programs to four projects in Ethiopia.
"We have seen tremendous impact on the lives of mothers both in knowing how to care for their children and also in their own spiritual development," said Compassion's Gregg Keen. "Having a child in the program with Compassion where the mother has become a believer because of this certainly allows that child a better opportunity to understand the Gospel in their own home."
