It’s exciting to watch your baby gain independence. One of the big successes that every parent expects is when they can sit on their own. Let’s take a look at ways to help the baby acquire these great motor skills and sit on his or her own:
Before you’re ready
It’s important to know what to do and how to get your baby to learn to sit on his own. Your baby may start to sit as soon as 4 months or 9 months at the earliest. Don’t try to hurry. According to Pediatrician Dr. Kurt Heyrman, you should make sure he has some great motor skills, such as holding his neck, being balanced, and being able to use the trunk muscles.
Preparing to Sit Down
From birth, your baby makes movements that strengthen the neck, abdomen, and back muscles while spending time in bed. In general, babies’ muscles are strengthened from head to toe in this process. When he starts to raise his head to look at you while lying down, you can tell that those muscles are getting stronger. Change position frequently to help the baby acquire these great motor skills.
Standing on the Abdomen
At first, your baby may not like being on his belly. However, it is very important that he starts doing this. This is important for him to sit down and develop the muscles he needs for future milestones. You can try to get her used to it by putting her belly on your chest and putting her on your lap with your face facing her. Then you can make her more comfortable by putting pillows on her armpits and chest that support her.
Stance
Your baby can usually hold his head alone when he is 3-4 months old. At that time, you can put him on a perimeter-supported seat. Be sure to always watch your baby while he/she is in the seat. You can also use the pillows to support your baby and help her sit up.
As your baby grows, he’ll be able to sit on the couch for a longer period of time. His head may tremble at first, so don’t worry about it. After a while, he will be able to balance his head and hold it upright. As he grows stronger, he will be able to sit for a few seconds while he sits down. He’ll be shaking at first. At this stage, you can usually see him tipping over, but this is how he learns to hold himself upright.
Body Balance
Your baby needs to learn balance before sitting alone. While having good trunk muscles helps this, that’s not all they need. To help him win this, you can place him in the corner of the sofa. If you want to work together, you can take it in your arms, sit it on your legs and support it and make sure that it is safe.
Assisted Products
Strong neck, upper body and supine muscles are all necessary for sitting alone. You can use the methods of supporting it with pillows or leaning on something soft. Apart from this, you can use a child seat and have sitting exercises.
What can you do
Put your baby on his back so that you can gently grab his hands and pull him into a sitting position. Doctors say the best way to teach is to attract. For example, babies like to look in the mirror. Hold up a mirror so that he can see it so that he will try to get up to see it, which will encourage him to sit down. Another muscle-strengthening idea is to hold your baby under his arms and put his attacks on the ground. Your baby can’t stay in this position on his/her own yet, but keeping him/her in this position helps him/her gain more strength.
Be prepared
After your baby sits alone, you need to make some adjustments in his room. His arms get very strong for 6 months and after a while he can do many things. Check the surroundings of the cribs and place dangerous things out of their reach. For example, you may want to remove mobile phones. Or make sure that the perimeter of the cot is high enough so that it doesn’t fall and is safer.
Attention
Although your baby is strong enough to raise his head and now sits on his own, he may not yet be ready to sit alone in the car. Acceleration in the car is still at high risk of injury during deceleration, so hold it in your lap for a while.
Creep
Once your baby gets used to sitting, his lower body will continue to gain strength. Once he learns to keep his hips steady and sit up, he’ll be strong enough to move himself. And after this process, he may even start to crawl.