Baby Sitting: Should You Help Your Baby Sit Unassisted?
Jul 24, 2020
Should I help my baby sit before they can sit alone?
New guidelines released in 2019 by the World Health Organisation tell us “To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more”. There is A LOT of information online suggesting babies should be left to learn to “sit naturally” or that sitting babies before they can sit themselves is harmful. So should our babies sit at all?... we say YES!... here is WHY!
First just let us say unrestricted floor play is the top priority… Unrestricted baby-led mat play is extremely beneficial for your baby’s development and should definitely make up the bulk of playtime every day. The WHO guidelines recommend infants under 1 year be physically active several times a day in a variety of ways, particularly through interactive floor-based play; more is better. We would recommend that this floor play be broken into several short play sessions throughout the day where possible.
WHO also recommends infants under 1 year should “Not be restrained for more than 1 hour at a time”. This includes pram, highchair, car seat and baby wearing. We would recommend also trying to balance your day so if know you are going to have a day of lots of errands going between car and pram all day that you try and have some really active play time before you go out, or the next day have a day with more play and less “strapped in” time BUT definitely don’t feel guilty strapping in when you need to!
Is there any value in including sitting in playtime? And is it “un-natural” for babies to be held in sitting? To get to the bottom of this we need to know a little more about how babies learn to sit.
How do babies learn to sit?
Generally, babies first learn to balance in sitting position (STATIC sitting) before they can get in and out of sitting themselves. They may use their arms to lean forward and balance and their spine looks very curved forwards in a C shape. This is TYPICAL early sitting and doesn’t mean that sitting is bad for them just that they still need some support.
Babies generally develop in this order:
- Head and neck control (around 3 months)
- Trunk control (around 6 months)
- Dynamic sitting balance- sit independently and play with a toy without overbalancing, move in and out of sitting independently (7 months)
AMAZINGLY your baby’s development is actually shaped by the culture they are raised in. There is no absolute “natural”. While there are lots of common threads, motor development is a little different all around the world.
The milestones above are Western motor development milestones. Typically, in Western culture, we put babies on the mat on their tummies or on their backs before they can roll and move between these positions themselves. We also sit babies on our laps, in highchairs, prams and carry them sitting on our hips before they can sit alone. This practise of supporting your baby on you, or putting them on a mat in a position they can’t get to themselves is not unnatural.
Baby sitting equipment
When you support your baby in sitting, they are working whichever bit you are NOT supporting. SO holding a baby with lots of support either in your arms or in baby equipment like a bumbo doesn’t help them learn to sit by themselves because they aren’t actually working very hard.
That doesn’t mean that chairs like highchairs and bumbos should not be used, only that you should be aware that you are using them for other reasons (like supporting for eating) not teaching sitting… and I’d suggest sticking with the WHO guidelines when you are deciding how much to use them.
We have A WHOLE blog for you on baby equipment but in a nutshell …if you are using baby equipment to position your baby take a close look at their position in it and try and make sure they are not wonky, that the head isn’t tilted one way and that they look safe, symmetrical and relaxed.
How to help your baby sit up
I would suggest supporting your baby in a way that allows them to safely experiment by shifting their weight and figure out how to stay balanced. Do this carefully as there will obviously be lots of topples but some options include sitting:
- In a washing basket
- In a sturdy box
- In a mini foldout couch (when it is folded out flat)
- In the corner of the couch
If you want to know more we have a whole section on learning to sit in our Walky Talky Baby Membership with photos of each of these setups and the opportunity to ask us any specific questions about sitting and your baby.
Babies often love this opportunity to be upright and see the world in a different way. It can also provide an excellent ‘time to talk’ opportunity you are not behind or underneath them but in front. Singing, modelling gestures or reading would be lovely talking options.
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