In a spin: 'Baby Yoga' causes controversy

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A therapy dubbed 'baby yoga' sees babies swung and spun about by the arms and legs.

Babies from two weeks to two years old receive the treatment ostensibly to improve muscular development.

Lena Fokina, 51, says baby dynamics originated with African tribes, but the current incarnation was developed by another Russian, Dr Igor Charkovsky, and has been used to treat muscular and skeletal problems in children.

Fokina, a qualified PE teacher, disputes claims that the practice is dangerous.

“Most people think young babies can only lie on a bed, eat, and cry. But babies are born with natural reflexes, which we can use to help them develop physically and intellectually,” she told media.

Fokina has been running sessions at a seminar called 'Parenting the Deliberate Way' in Dahab, Egypt. She says children who receive the treatment often turn out to be early readers, singers, talkers, swimmers.

“It also makes their hands stronger. We are humanists and we don’t do anything wrong,” she said.

Mother-of-five and grandmother Fokina has been practicing baby dynamics for 30 years, and her two daughters, now free-divers, both were raised according to the Charkovsky method.

However some critics fear that the practice could lead to SBS, or Shaken Baby Syndrome, which can result in brain damage or death.

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