Catherine Uden coos at her 5-month-old, Jack, as they sit quietly in the yoga studio.

The instructor enters and taps on a bell. Jack looks up. Class has begun at Yoga One studio in Hollywood, Florida.

For the next 25 minutes, they follow instructor Darlene Feinzig’s lead. Uden sings to Jack. She cradles his face and runs her hands down to his feet. She pulls his heels together, to stretch his hips and thighs.

They are practicing Itsy Bitsy Yoga.

“I think yoga is good for everybody,” says Uden, a Hollywood, Florida, elementary schoolteacher who has played yoga tapes to her students to help them focus.

Yoga has come a long way, with everything from Tantra Yoga to Laughter Yoga to Dog Yoga. “Baby yoga” has grown in recent years, and several “iterations” are taught across the country, according to Yoga Journal senior editor Diane Anderson in San Francisco.

“As yoga itself has become more popular, people want to extend the benefits of yoga to people they love, and their children would be among the first,” she says.

Itsy Bitsy Yoga was created 10 years ago by Helen Garabedian, a yoga and massage instructor in Boston. Garabedian says she studied babies’ movement, reflexes and equilibrium responses before creating the program, and has seen it grow since adding a certification course and publishing a book about it in 2004.

She has trained about a dozen Florida instructors to teach newborns through 24-month-olds, including a weeklong Orlando seminar last year.

Garabedian argues that Itsy Bitsy Yoga is more child-focused than, say, Mommy and Me classes, although others say it isn’t that much different. But the greater point is that in baby yoga, parental exertion is minimal.

Feinzig says: “These classes are all about the babies. It’s not for mom to get a tight butt.”

Time for babies
If you’re questioning how much yoga a baby can take in — ever throw a birthday party for a 1-year-old? — you might have a point.

But fans of yoga for infants and toddlers say it’s a way to a) bond with their children; b) keep babies relaxed and happy; and c) socialize with other moms.

“I personally don’t have a problem with it,” says Dr. Stephen Swirsky, of the Miami Children’s Hospital pediatric and adolescent sports medicine and orthopaedic surgery center. “If nothing else, it is bonding and physical contact time with the mother, which we all know is very important.

“How much actual benefit they get from it physically I think is very hard to quantify,” he adds. “That being said, I agree that floor activities for young kids are very important for head and trunk control as well as flexibility and coordination.”

Not to mention, it can help with your baby’s sleep and gas issues, Garabedian says.

The way Staci Sukphisit, of Fort Lauderdale, sees it, taking the class could set a pattern of fitness for the future.

“I grew up in a family where shopping was our competitive sport,” says the mom of 6-month-old Bergen. “I want to do everything I can to encourage my child to be healthy.”

Final relaxation
Because moms usually enroll in the class for only a few months, classes pop up often and the teachers find venues to suit the moms, says Kayla Willson, who teaches Itsy Bitsy Yoga in the West Palm Beach area.

Teachers also are encouraged to give the class their own spin.

Feinzig has found blowing bubbles to be a good trick. The babies are silent as they follow the bubbles with their eyes, and laugh when one lands on them and breaks.

“It increases their body awareness,” Feinzig says.

Then she tells parents to lie prone and place their babies on top of them, face-to-face for a final relaxation, similar to what happens in adult yoga classes.

“Unclench your jaws,” she tells the moms. “Breathe away any tension and stress.”

But Jack is squirmy, and Uden takes him off to the side. Sukphisit closes her eyes, but having Bergen on her belly gives her the giggles.

So Feinzig gives up. Gotta know when to adjust.

Instead, everyone just sits in a circle and talks quietly. Bergen is out cold, breathing heavy on mom’s shoulder.

And Jack will be in dreamland by the time Uden starts the car, she says.

“That’s the other great part of it,” Uden says. “They have the best naps.”

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