#tattuesdays

Independent sitting usually begins around 6 months old.  By sitting independently, I mean being able to sit without anyone supporting them.  So if your baby is able to sit with their hands on the floor holding themselves up around 6 months, then they are on the right track.  

There are a few ways to progress crawling.  

1- Improving sitting balance on an exercise ball- I mentioned this one before, but it is a really great way to start building ab and back strength, as well as improving your baby's protective reactions to moving in different positions.   You can begin by holding your baby under their arms with your hands around their trunk, and as their balance and strength improves, you can just hold their thighs and move them around and bounce them on a ball.

2- Sitting your baby in free space with a boppy pillow or other large pillow behind them.  This is different from sitting on a ball, because now your baby has the opportunity to try to sit by themselves.  It is okkk to let them fall as long as you have padding all over and are near by.  Each fall will serve as more practice working on those protective reactions and ab and back strength.  You can start with larger supports at first, and gradually move to smaller pillows.  

3- Sitting in a couch corner.  This is a little similar to sitting with a pillow behind them, but the corner allows your baby to fall backwards and try to recover on their own without your assistance.  You can wrap a boppy pillow in front of your baby or put another pillow in front of them to protect them if they fall forward.  This will also provide a support surface for your baby to push off of to try sitting back up again by themselves.  You can make this harder by putting a towel roll or little pillow behind them by their bottoms to prevent them from fully leaning against the couch, so that they have to work harder to sit up. 

not like this haha--> 

more like this--> 

Next on my tips and tricks list is how to progress beyond combat crawling (when a baby drags their body along the floor mostly using their arms).   After combat crawling comes creeping!  Creeping is a funky term, I know, but it actually means crawling on one's hands and knees.  In PT speak, we call that crawling in quadruped.  

Some babies have a hard time holding themselves up in that hands and knees position:

 sorry couldn't find a cute kid pic for this position :)

Maintaining this position requires ab strength and arm strength, which can be difficult for a baby that has never tried the position.  There is a way, however, to make it easier for your child if they are having a hard time maintaining quadruped.  

One way to make it easier, is to bring the floor up a bit to help them increase their strength when putting weight on their hands/knees without all that effort.  

As seen in the above picture, you can first work on kneeling a at a support surface.  This helps your child become used to being on their hands and knees and also works on their ab strength/trunk control.  While in this position, you can then work on maintaining this position with just one hand on the support while playing with a toy with the other hand.

You can gradually make this harder by lowering the support surface to eventually being on their hands/knees on the floor.   And then try reaching for a toy while being on hands/knees on the floor.  

A second way to progress combat crawling to creeping on hands/knees is to create obstacles for your child to crawl over so they are forced to push up onto their hands and knees to get over an obstacle.  

Quick sidenote:

The picture I used of the baby kneeling at a support, is from a great blog I found while searching for the appropriate pic.  

Here's a link to the site, which chronicles a baby with down syndrome's life from his dad's point of view.

Sorry my TAT-tuesdays is 1 day late already 1 week into it, but here it is!

OK so Tummy TIme Tips! Can you tell I felt like using a little alliteration today? :) 

I see a lot of patients with torticollis as well as patients whose parents say that their children hate tummy time.   There may be a few reasons your child may hate tummy time.

1- they may be teething, and being face down really puts pressure on your head, and I'd rather lie on my back if I had a toothe-ache thank you very much :)

2-they may not be strong enough to hold their heads up so once they feel the burn of those muscles they are over tummy time haha.  

I can't really help the pain in problem #1, but I can provide an alternative to straight tummy time.  

One way you can ease your child into tummy time is by having them be on their tummy on an exercise ball.  

This can do 2 things: 1- Takes your child's face higher off the floor so they don't feel claustrophobic and so they can see more of the world around them if they can't quite hold their head up all the way.

2- It makes tummy time more fun, since now they are on something shiny, squishy, and bouncy.  Andddd they're allowed to hit it and it can act like a drum :)

I have parents start with their child slightly tilted backwards on the ball so their more in a nearly standing position.  This way, they are still on their tummy, but don't have to work so hard to hold their head up.  In this position you can also roll the ball side to side to work on head control.  As your baby gets stronger then you can gradually put them on the top of the ball and tilt in all directions.