If you watch babies and toddlers you will see they have flexible bodies and a fluidity of movement. They carry their weight forwards and sit in a variety of positions, always moving from one position to another. They naturally fall into yoga asanas which is why it is wonderful to practice with them, it is ourselves who find the moves more unnatural, to them it is second nature. Yet if fluidity of movement and flexibility come naturally, why teach yoga to little people?
There are many benefits of yoga practice with your children and not just that is is so much fun and that mummy gets a lot out of it too. For children it is a time when they can both move yet also come to a moment or two of stillness, to allow their bodies to stretch, help their digestion and help their bodies and minds relax which is sometimes truly difficult for an excitable child!
When a baby or toddler has tummy ache you can encourage them to join you (or just assist them) into a gentle knees to chest pose (often called ‘wind removing pose’), tummy positions such as cobra (lying tummy down, hands under shoulders and lifting head and shoulders), half plank (holding the start position of a press-up) and downward dog (from plank pose lift the hips into an inverted V shape) all aid strength for crawling, getting down from places they have climbed upto (!) and exploring. As with other poses which you will be doing during the shows, as your little one begins to join you, there are a variety of poses which will help them with sitting and standing. Even if they do not do the yoga, as you do it they will enjoy your movements, especially when you are low to the floor and will likely use you as an aid to sitting, standing and walking!
The best thing to do is have a rough idea of the poses that you can do together, like you in savasana (corpse pose, lying face up on the floor) with your baby in the same pose ontop of you, lying on the floor in happy baby pose or knees to chest pose (and helping your baby follow suit), playing peek a boo in cobra pose and taking bridge position (lying on back, bring knees in towards the sitting bones and lift hips) lying next to each other or with your baby enjoying the ride (if you are strong enough) as you have them sitting or lying with you. After this, just enjoy and adapt. I am sure your child will find some new, unheard of positions that might be fun to try with them as long as you are careful (!) and combined this should make for a loving, fun and extremely beneficial experience for everyone involved.
