Parents are always in a hurry to get somewhere. At first, they can’t wait to see the future baby, then they wait for his first smile, turning from back to tummy, introduction of complementary foods, first teeth, and so on. By the age of 4 months, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep a curious fidget in a horizontal position, and many people think about how to teach a child to sit. But modern pediatricians unanimously ask us to just wait.
Mothers are obedient people. They said to be patient - they wait. But the abundance of all kinds of devices such as walkers, jumpers, car seats from 0+ will lead anyone into confusion. Why are they created then if they are “harmful”? The thing is that there are several approaches to the question of when to plant a baby.
Americans allow children to sit almost from birth. They are the main buyers of sun loungers, kangaroo carriers, baby sitters and other similar products.
Thematic material:
Komarovsky and other domestic doctors believe that it is correct to sit a baby no earlier than six months, so that the muscle corset is sufficiently strong. Otherwise, they endlessly repeat, scoliosis is guaranteed for the baby.
This kind of “parenting” assumes that the baby should sit down independently when he wants to. It doesn’t matter if this happens at 3, 4 or 8 months. And he will sit down! Because mom and dad pay great attention to his physical development, regularly and correctly perform gymnastic exercises with him, and do not forget about massages.
The well-known pediatrician Komarovsky is also of the opinion that the main thing is the child’s desire to sit, but reminds us of the seriously increasing load on the spine in this position.
The inconsistency of the above-mentioned approaches has given rise to many misconceptions in society about when children should sit down and how to do it correctly.
One of them is related to gender differences in children: supposedly a girl should be placed later than a boy, because she will have problems with childbearing in the future. Nonsense! Modern medicine has long refuted this myth.
Thematic material:
And yet, it is better not to place a girl before 5–5.5 months, because she, unlike a boy, has more fragile bone tissue, the formation of which will take more time.
“Beloved by all mothers, Komarovsky, speaking about how to teach a child to sit, advises encouraging the baby not to sit down, but to crawl. Getting on all fours – sitting – rising from a support – walking – this should be the sequence of correctly developing skills.”
Today's parents competently approach all issues related to the growth of their infant. They will not force the baby to sit down prematurely, but instead will direct all their efforts to strengthening and developing his muscles to help the baby do this on his own.
But first you need to make sure that the baby’s reluctance to sit is not accompanied by the presence of any pathologies of the nervous system, muscle dystrophy or rickets.
If everything is in order, be patient and feel free to proceed with physical therapy.
For the exercises to be beneficial, before gymnastics you need to warm up the baby’s muscles with a relaxing massage:
It is necessary to consult with a specialist about how to properly perform a massage, since careless movements can harm a fragile child’s body.
You should start doing pull-ups as early as 2 months. Such exercises are based on the baby’s grasping reflex and train the abdominal muscles well. As soon as you bring your fingers to the toddler lying on his back, he will grab them and want to stand up. Carefully lift it and fix it at a slight angle.
Closer to 4 months, we increase the angle to 90 degrees. In a sitting position, we stop for a few seconds and lower the baby again. You can do such exercises no more than 6 times in a row.
We place the baby on his legs with his back to himself. With one hand we hold the baby above the knees, the other on his chest. We slowly tilt the baby forward to 90 degrees and help him return to a vertical position. We perform the exercise up to 7-10 times.
Starting position: the child lies with his back on a hard surface. Fixing the knees with one hand, lift it by the handles with the other and swing it in different directions. To protect your baby, place a pillow or cushion behind him. “Swing” for no more than 1.5-2 minutes.
The starting position is the same as in the previous exercise. One hand of the mother is again on her knees, with the other we take the baby by the wrist and gently pull it towards the opposite leg so that he begins to lean on the free arm. Change hands and do the exercise 6 more times.
Thematic material:
Closer to six months, your child will be able to independently raise his head, leaning on his elbows. The time has come to complicate the gymnastics.
For the exercise you will need a high pillow that needs to be attached to the wall. She will be a backup. Sit your baby upright, holding onto your fingers, and rock him.
Now take the toy in your free hand and lift it slightly higher than the one that the baby grabbed. The baby should break away from you and take the toy. At this point, he will have to balance himself in a sitting position.
Do not forget that all exercises must be performed in a good mood and accompanied by funny rhymes and nursery rhymes.
In order for a child to start sitting independently on time, it is necessary to work on his physical development from birth.
The same Komarovsky recommends not neglecting baby swimming in a large bathtub. Nowadays, a lot of wonderful devices are sold for bathing babies - circles, hats, pillows and mattresses. In water, the baby’s muscles are strengthened, blood circulation is stimulated, tension is relieved and the heart is trained.
Orthopedists advise children under one year of age to undergo about 4 courses of general massage. Many parents consider this unnecessary. But in vain! Some babies delight moms and dads with new achievements after just a few sessions. Massage relieves muscle tension and tones the child’s body.
Sometimes the little one is simply lazy, and there is no physiological reason for him to remain in a horizontal position. A little trick can help parents here: make him feel uncomfortable. Let him fall on his side - without your help he will quickly learn to balance and find balance on his own.
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How to teach a child to sit independently. The advantage of the fact that the child has learned to sit independently is that it is more convenient to spoon feed a sitting baby.
According to pediatricians, a child should develop and sit according to approximately the following indicators:
at 6 months - sits with support;
at 7 months - sits without support;
at 7.5 - 8 months. - easily sits down independently and can lie down from this position.
It happens that active and physically strong children go to school a month and a half earlier. For other babies this happens a little later. According to doctors, such indicators are also considered normal.
Girls develop faster than boys, and children who are not overweight are more active than their well-fed peers.
At the appointment, pediatricians ask parents a question when the child is already 6 months old - “Is the child already sitting down?”, or ask them to sit your baby down for the convenience of examining him.
Children sit down at the age of 6-8 months, approximately when they begin to crawl. Basically, the child first gets on all fours, and from this position, they sit back on their buttocks, first holding onto the floor surface with 2 hands, then with one, and over time they remove their hands and sit on their own. With good abs, it is possible to sit down over a side, pushing off with one hand from the surface on which the child is located.
After this, mothers begin to worry and worry, wondering why their child still doesn’t sit up on his own? And how to teach a child to sit?
Teaching a child to sit is not at all difficult, because with normal development he will sooner or later learn everything. We will figure out when a child can sit and whether he should be helped in this matter.
1. There is no need to sit the baby in pillows, because when sitting down, his back bends like a wheel and instead of holding the spine, his muscles relax.
2. Try to start with the smallest thing. Take the child in your arms, hold the top, under the chest, with one hand, and support his butt with the other hand. And don’t hold it like that for long. Gradually, the spine will get used to such exercises and the muscles will develop in this direction.
3. You can hang strong toys on the crib, for example, a toy ring that he can cling to. By six months, the baby should already be rolling over on his own; by rolling over, he is practicing his sitting exercise.
Knowing how to teach a child to sit, you can speed up this moment. You just need to sit your child on your lap or in a child seat more often so that he can lean on his back.
There are children who sit up on their own at 4 months, no matter how much you put them to bed, and there are cases when a child does not sit up at 7 months.
There are options when the ability to crawl, stand, and only then sit appears.
Good children's doctors will always reassure an overly emotional mother, give sensible advice and talk about how to properly teach a child to sit independently and what exercises are needed in such a situation, rather than brushing it aside: “Well, let's see what happens in a month for you.”
What could be easier than sitting? And this is a rather complicated process. Watch the kids.
One child gets on all fours, backs a little, puts emphasis on his legs, as if fixing himself, then leaning on his outstretched arms, straightens his legs and...here he is sitting.
You can observe an option when a child, bending at the waist, lifts his body 10 cm from the surface (but still does not have enough strength to sit down), then the child, slightly falling on his side, puts out his hand, and, pushing off slightly, also sits down.
There is an unspoken rule that lessons with boys should begin at 5 months in order to teach the child to sit, but for girls it is better not to sit down until 6 months. And if a child does not sit at 6 months, this is not a deviation from the norm.
If you sit your child down and he falls over, there is no need to cover him with pillows and torture him! This is not a way to strengthen your spine! Even if the child is not sitting at 8 months.
Exercises will tell you how to teach a child to sit. But first you need to warm up the child’s muscles. Ideal time after an afternoon swim. The muscles are just warmed up properly.
To strengthen muscles, you can bathe children in an adult bathtub filled to the brim (of course, with a special circle on the neck); in children's stores they are called “bathing circles for 0 to 12 months.”
What is the connection between swimming and strengthening muscles? In such a bath, the child actively works with his arms and legs. It is these exercises that strengthen his abdominal muscles.
So, let's return to exercises that can teach a child to sit. Having bathed the child and carried out all the necessary procedures and dressed him, you can begin:
Sit on the floor with your legs apart, place the baby in the resulting space with your back to you, and put a large toy opposite you (preferably a bear, its paws are easy to grab).
As soon as the baby leans on it, lift it low from the floor and move it, now to the right, now to the left. To strengthen the spinal muscle corset. As you can see, everything is in the form of a game with a child.
If a child sits leaning on his arms, you can wean him off this using balance exercises. Toys will help you with this. Get your child interested in his favorite or new toy by moving it in one direction or the other. Having become fascinated by a toy, the baby will reach for it with his hands and, accordingly, will stop leaning on them. So gradually the child will learn to use the muscles of the trunk to maintain balance.
To prevent a fall, while performing this exercise, it is better to be with the child on the floor, sitting him between his outstretched legs: if he loses balance, he will be able to use them as a railing (do not forget to lay a blanket on the floor or vacuum the carpet well).
At first, the child will reach for the toy with one hand and continue to be supported by the other. But over time, his balance skills will improve, and he will begin to reach for objects with both hands and even begin to grab objects that are behind his back.
Exercise No. 1. Pulling by the handles. From a position lying on his back, the child pulls himself up, holding the thumbs of your hands. First, use two hands, once you get used to it and get stronger, you can use one hand. In the case of pulling up by one handle, you need to use your free hand to fix the baby’s legs in the area above the knees, lightly pressing them against the surface on which he is lying. You should not sit your baby down by pulling his arms, he should pull himself up, your hands remain motionless. We just slightly pull the baby’s arms towards us.
Exercise No. 2. We train the child’s perseverance. We teach the child to sit and not fall over. Having seated the baby on a moderately hard surface, we fix his legs with one hand, put the thumb of the other in the baby’s palm, clasping the baby’s hand with the other fingers. In this position, we swing the child by the handle, forward, backward, right to left, circular rotations. For safety, you can place a pillow behind the baby.
These exercises train the trunk muscles, vestibular apparatus, and the child learns to maintain balance in a sitting position. Children mostly sit on all fours, but if the baby does not yet know how to do this, then in this case all that remains is to do such exercises.
This video will show you how to teach your child to sit independently. In it you will also find out when such important moments in a child’s life occur, such as crawling, walking, and so on.
The baby is growing, and he is no longer interested in constantly lying on his back. He tries in different ways to change the position of his body. And his mother is obliged to help him with this.
Very early, you can sit your child down with support. But only when he is about 5 months old is he ready to learn to sit on his own. To help your baby, you need to help strengthen the muscles of the back and neck. Then, at the age of eight months, your baby should be able to sit up independently.
With your support, begin to periodically sit the baby down. This way he will easily get used to his new situation. Then, remove your hands a little, allowing him to independently hold himself in a sitting position.
Do the following exercise with your child. Spread the blanket and place the baby on your stomach. Show him different pictures and toys that might interest him. It is important that the baby keeps his attention on objects and at the same time holds his head. This exercise will strengthen your back and neck. Do this daily for thirty minutes.
Place your baby near objects that will support his back. For example, sit the child on a sofa or chair and put a pillow. Let him sit with a pillow once a day until he begins to do this on his own without additional support.
As soon as your baby is able to sit without your help, provide him with toys so that he can stay in a sitting position more.
Develop your baby's balance so that he does not fall to one side when trying to sit. Let him turn his body from side to side during the game.
In the first days of training, give your baby a light massage. This way you will prepare him for the loads.
If the baby is in a sitting position, but at the same time leans on his hands, place a toy nearby. While playing with it, he will need to free his hands. There is a high probability that he will get used to sitting on his butt.
If the baby is sitting, it is more convenient to feed him with a spoon. Eating food in this position will have a good effect on the digestion process.
If a child refuses to sit, don’t force him. There is no need for the baby to overload the spine. Everything will have its time.
Make sure that during training the child does not hit himself when he falls. After all, this may frighten him, and he will lose the desire to sit.
There are cases that children first learn to stand and then sit.
But if the child is already nine months old and cannot sit, go for a consultation with a pediatrician or neurologist.
How did you teach your baby to sit, crawl and walk?
At 6 months, few babies know how to sit, but now is the time to teach them to do so. The most important thing to remember is that you need to help the child sit up, but not injure him, because babies’ muscles and bones may not be prepared for such a load. That is why today we will discuss not only how to properly teach a child to sit down independently without the help of parents, but also how to strengthen the baby’s body so that the learning process goes without problems.
1. Before teaching your child to sit, do some exercises. It is advisable to perform a simple set of exercises daily. Its essence lies in ordinary stroking and rubbing, flexion and extension of the limbs. During such manipulations, blood circulation improves, which means that the tissues and organs inside the baby’s body grow, develop and strengthen. All movements must be accompanied by gentle words spoken in a calm tone so that the child does not get scared.
2. There is a great exercise you can do if you are wondering how to teach your child to sit up on his own without your help. To do this, place the baby on his back. Let him grab your hands and begin to pull himself up (naturally, the child needs a little help). The exercise is repeated 3-5 times, gradually increasing the number of repetitions. Remember that it is still difficult for the baby to maintain his weight, so if you see that he is tired, stop exercising.
3. An ordinary playpen can achieve excellent results. Many models are made with a large mesh that can be used for pull-ups. Show your baby how to do this, and he will try to sit up on his own, holding the playpen with his hands.
4. It's time to teach your baby to walk in a stroller with the backrest raised. Try to lift it briefly every day - let the baby get used to the load. But still, now the child still has to spend more time in a stroller-cradle. When you notice that your child already feels comfortable enough in a sitting position, you can walk this way for quite a long time.
5. Try to sit the child on your lap for a short time (about 5-7 minutes). There is no need to cover it with pillows - in this position the child sits, but his muscles do not work.
6. You can buy a children's high chair, the position of the backrest of which is adjustable. It is perfect for those babies who are just learning to sit.
Gradually teach your child to sit on his own. Be patient, try to work with your baby regularly, and soon your baby will be able to sit up on his own.
Any young mother begins to get nervous when people around her start bombarding her with questions about her baby. Everyone becomes interested in what the baby eats, what he already knows how to do, whether he has started to sit on his own, crawl, walk, etc. The advice of elders is especially common that it is time for the baby to learn to sit on his own or perform some other action himself. . At this time, mothers begin to worry that their child is not yet sitting, and think about how to force him to sit, although the time for this has not yet come. However, there is no need to panic; you need to figure out when to start sitting your baby down and how to teach your baby to sit.
Sooner or later healthy child sits down by himself
All age norms, which are based on data obtained statistically, sometimes become just a headache for the mother. The slightest deviation from the norm in the development of a child causes concern among parents, who believe that it is urgent to correct this and speed up the development process of their child. In this case, of course, you need to help the baby, but it is important to follow main principle: do no harm!
Sometimes a baby does not want to sit at six months - this is not a reason to worry and frantically think about how to teach a child to sit, because most babies learn this only at seven to eight months, when they feel that their muscles have become sufficiently strong.
Doctors (E.O. Komarovsky among them), as a rule, respond to parents’ attempts to teach their child to sit that the child himself must want it, and there is no point in forcibly preparing him for this process. If parents try to speed up the process, they risk the child getting injured, which will then affect his health.
Thus, in order to teach a child to sit correctly, you just need to help him and do special gymnastics and exercises to gradually strengthen the muscles.
Myths about girls sitting
Curvature of the uterus when girls sit is a fictitious myth
There are many opinions, and even more misconceptions, about how many months you can start babying girls. The main fear and misconception is that girls should not be placed early, because this leads to a bending of the uterus. This is complete nonsense, because the curvature of the uterus and sitting on the butt are in no way connected with each other. This is either a congenital defect in a girl, or it is acquired as a result of past illnesses.
Babies, in principle, are very curious, so they begin to actively explore everything around them when they realize that they can sit, crawl, walk, so after the child starts to smile, he immediately tries to sit down. However, the spine at this time is still very weak and does not tolerate loads well, and orthopedists strictly forbid parents to begin to sit the baby down until he himself makes such attempts.
Parents should not worry if their daughter begins to sit before the due date. In addition, you should not pay attention to the fact that at first it will fall and become crooked – this is normal. Each time the sitting process will turn out better and better, and one day the girl will sit straight on her butt on her own.
Gymnastics and exercises for babies
Special gymnastics that strengthens the child’s spine will help teach a child to sit.
Before you try to teach your child to sit on his own, you need to figure out whether it’s worth sitting your baby down at all. By five months, parents can begin to hold the child on their laps, leaning back slightly so that there is no strain on his fragile spine. If the baby feels uncomfortable at this time, showing his dissatisfaction to his parents, then after two to three weeks you can begin to briefly leave him reclining between the pillows.
All babies will definitely begin to sit on their own, trying to get up from a lying position, leaning on their hands to straighten their back. If parents see this, they can perceive such actions of the baby as a signal to help the baby to consolidate his success.
Another way to both teach a child to sit and strengthen his body is exercises that you can start doing with your baby after he has started to sit down. As an example, below we will describe some exercises that could be used for activities with a child.
To begin with, you can put the baby on your shoulder and slowly spin: in one direction and in the other. At the same time, you should be careful not to get dizzy. Then you can call on one of your relatives to help, rock the baby, holding the ankles and wrists, and rock him as if in a cradle. Another exercise: turn the child to face you, take him by the wrists, turn him a little, rotating, holding his straight arms.
Once or twice in a row you won’t be able to immediately help the baby, so you need to be patient and not rush things, and the following few tips can also help.
If the baby sits down, you need to place pillows around him to prevent him from falling. In order for the baby to learn to maintain balance, you can use his favorite toys, reaching for them while sitting, the baby will quickly forget that he is not being held - this will strengthen his muscles.
If a newborn baby is used to leaning on his arms, he can be helped with the same toys that he likes. While he is reaching for the toy, he will forget that he needs to hold on with his hands, therefore, he will begin to gain balance. Then the toys can begin to be moved from one side to the other, the baby will begin to turn with them, therefore, he will also be forced to free his hands. It is better if, while the baby is sitting, you use the parents’ hands as handrails - this way the baby can hold on to them safely, while the corresponding muscles will be strengthened, which will then allow the baby to sit fully independently.
