Tag Archives: infant development

Sitting and Playing at 7 – 8 months

Infant Health & Safety, ,

Once your baby has mastered a solid sitting position, you’ll find that he is able to remain sitting upright and stable for longer periods of time. He is able to make subtle balance adjustments and may begin reaching for objects further out of reach.

Now that he doesn’t need to focus as much on keeping his body from falling, he can shift his attention to the important work of baby play. Like a little scientist, your baby will study his toys, how they feel, taste, look and sound.

Your baby will still mouth everything, but no longer is that his primary way to investigate an object. Instead, he’ll inspect toys carefully, using wrist rotation to turn it in different angles, and hold it with one hand to manipulate it with the other. Learning to use two hands in a coordinated fashion is a developmental task at this stage: watch your child stabilize the toy in one hand, and use the other hand spin, poke or explore the object. Using both hands differently to accomplish a goal is new and exciting.

In addition to more complex rattles, your baby is ready for more complicated developmental toys now. Stacking cups, nesting boxes, Tupperware containers and small blocks are excellent toys for this age group. Try placing an assortment of small but baby-safe toys or household objects in a plastic bowl or shoebox for your baby to explore. He’ll likely spend time removing objects one by one to empty the container. Show him how to put them back “IN” and take them “OUT” again. Your baby will also enjoy holding two objects, one in each hand, and banging them together. He may intentionally drop one object to pick up another and experiment with the different sounds he can make banging first one and then another object against another or against the floor or table.

Select open-ended safe developmental toys, meaning that you can play with them in different ways during different developmental stages. For example, your baby may not yet be ready to place blocks through the lid of a shape-sorting set, but he will enjoy using the blocks in other ways or just taking them out of the container. Keep your toy areas “fresh” by preventing your baby from being overwhelmed by a big pile or baskets of toys. Instead, put out a small assortment, and rotate the selection every few days. Have baby safe books available (washable fabric books or plastic “bath books” are good choices if your child tends to chew on board books) and keep board books handy in every room so you always have a book in reach to read to your baby when the opportunity arises.

Gross Motor Play for Babies

Infant Health & Safety, New Moms, ,

Gross Motor Play for Babies about 5 to 8 months old

Once your baby is enjoying more “Floor Time” and finding new ways to move his body, incorporating new “gross motor” activities will create fun new ways to challenge his skills.

Always keep safety in mind: stay nearby (or provide hands-on “spotting” if needed), make sure all toys and materials are child-safe and choke-hazard-free, and provide an appropriate surface for the expected occasional tumbles such as carpet or foam-flooring.

Try any of these ideas from about six months onward.

Tunnel Play: a collapsing tunnel is a fantastic play environment that offers many different uses over the coming months and years. Before your baby is crawling, try placing a sheet folded into a long strip all the way through the tunnel. Then, give your baby a “ride”, pulling him slowly through the tunnel, first on his back, and next on his tummy. Once your baby is crawling, he’ll crawl through the tunnel with your smiling face encouraging him at the  other end. Later still, he’ll crawl after a ball or pull toy you roll through the tunnel. And after that, a tunnel can become part of a more complex “obstacle course” set up for your toddler. Best still, when not in use, your tunnel collapses flat and can be tucked in a closet or under a bed.

Rody and Gym Ball play: With your hands-on assistance, your baby will enjoy practicing bouncing on these objects, and tilting from side to side. Slide your hands down to your baby’s hips (rather than holding him under the armpits) to allow his own trunk muscles to work on balance. If you are using a gym ball, you can sit him on top for some activities, and lay him tummy down on the ball for others. Facing a full-length mirror is fantastic when possible.

Bouncing on parent’s lap with songs and rhymes. Your baby is ready for exciting “rides” with bigger rises and (controlled) falls and swoops! Three favorite active bounces to try:

Trot-Trot to Boston
Trot-trot to Boston, Trot-trot to Lynn. Look out little Baby, that you don’t FALL IN!
Bounce baby on your lap and while holding securely, allow your baby to either tilt back or drop through your legs at the end.

Noble Duke of York
Oh, the Noble Duke of York, he had ten thousand men.
He rode them UP to the top of the hill, and he rode them DOWN again!
And when you’re UP, You’re UP. And when you’re DOWN, you’re DOWN.
And when you’re only HALFWAY UP, you’re neither UP nor DOWN!
Sit baby straddled across your leg like a horse and bounce baby rhythmically, raising and lowering baby to the up and down cues of the song. This is a truly a favorite!

Pop! Goes the Weasel
All around the cobbler’s bench, the monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought it was all in fun, then… POP! Goes the weasel!
Bounce baby on your lap to the rhthm of the song and while holding securely, do a big lift up at the “POP!”

You may find it a little tiresome singing the same songs over and over, but your baby thrives on the repetition, and begins to anticipate the movements and exciting finish! This familiarity helps him be an active participant in the activity.


Baby Ball Pit
Take one package of Ball Pit Balls and dump the balls into your pop-up travel crib/play-yard. Presto! Easy ball pit!

This is an easy activity and can provide many hours of play when used selectively. The balls are easy to put away and bring out on special occasions when you need a diversion. Meanwhile several balls at a time can be used for other activities such as dropping in and out of a bucket, rolling down a makeshift ramp, playing “catch” by rolling back and forth with caregiver while sitting on the floor, and as your child grows, for “indoor bowling” or counting and sorting by color.

 

Fine Motor Play Ideas from Six to Nine Months

Infant Health & Safety, New Moms, , ,

Midway into the first year, your baby will be busy learning and experimenting with how her hands and body work, and how the world works.
There are many easy and fun “fine motor” activities you can incorporate into every day play.

These interactive activities incorporate thinking and learning skills: how to use the hands in a coordinated fashion to achieve a goal, “motor planning” to position the fingers and hands, arms, trunk and body more intuitively to complete a task efficiently, cognitive skills by observing and learning by “cause and effect”, and the satisfaction that comes as your baby anticipates a result and sees it occur as expected.

Some fun toys and activities to add to your play:

Pull toys with string: A classic toy and way for your baby to learn cause and effect and how she can impact her environment. Show her how to pull the end of the string and draw the toy closer to her. Similar activities can be created by placing a folded receiving blanket near your baby and placing a toy or object on the far end. Show your baby how she can slowly pull the edge of the blanket in toward her body to bring the toy into closer reach.

What’s Inside, #1? Take some random objects or toys safe for exploring, and wrap each one in material that will be safe for your child to unwrap: a scarf, a receiving blanket, tissue paper, gift wrap. Let your baby practice unwrapping the packages to discover what is hidden inside.

What’s Inside, #2? Take a baby-safe toy or rattle and place it inside a clean sock, initially with an edge of the rattle exposed. Show your baby how to work to pull the sock off the object, or take the object out of the sock, and cheer when she succeeds. This can be made more challenging over time depending on the item “hidden” in the sock. Try a small safe ball. That’s hard!

What’s Inside, #3? Use safe containers like a cardboard shoe box with lid or a purse for your child to investigate. Place a stuffed animal or several small safe toys inside. Demonstrate how to take items OUT, place them back IN, and close the lid or top. Ask, “Where is it?” and show that it’s still in there where you put it.

Ball Ramp: Take a long cardboard tube and cut it in half. Use this as a ramp to roll a baby-safe small ball or car down the tube. Initially, your baby will probably be on the receiving end, catching the ball as it rolls down the ramp, but soon, she will have the skills to place the object at the top of the ramp and let go so down it rolls!

Large Knobbed Puzzle: A chunky wood “beginner” puzzle will be of interest now, even if your baby initially is more interested taking the pieces out, tasting them and banging them against the table. By modeling how the pieces fit back into the frame, your baby will soon try to imitate that action as well. Hint: secure the frame of the puzzle to the table surface with painter’s tape to reduce frustration from the frame sliding around or falling off the table.

Quick Tip: Too many toys piled up can be overwhelming. Instead, put out a small selection of toys at a time, and rotate new ones in and out of the mix every few days to keep things fresh and stimulating/ Of course it’s fine to leave favorite items that are frequently used.

Floor Time for Babies

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Your baby’s gross motor development occurs along predictable Cephalo-Caudal principles. As a reminder, this means that your baby develops motor strength and muscle control starting from from the top (Cephalo, Latin for “Head”) toward the bottom (Caudal, Latin for “tail”). This principle of development means that first, your baby works on achieving head and neck control, then upper body strength in the arms, shoulders and upper torso, then lower abdominal strength, and finally, leg strengthening and balance for walking.

For this context, think of the first year of life for a human child as a timeline from birth, essentially laying flat with very little muscle control, to one year, when a baby is now upright, standing and moving independently (cruising, crawling or walking).
The mid-way point, six months, the baby is halfway there. During the sixth month, most babies will be working on sitting upright, and on finding some way to move. Here’s how tummy time plays a critical role in building strength for these skills. Tummy time doesn’t go away, it evolves into “Floor Time”.

Between 2 – 4 months, babies (hopefully!) are working on tummy time, beginning to push up on bent arms and support their head, neck and eventually shoulders and upper body (pushing their chest up off the floor to the nipple level, even) for increasingly longer periods of time. What the 2 month old found frustratingly hard work when placed on his tummy, the 4 month old effortlessly performs: remaining propped up on his bent arms for much longer periods of time.

At five months, he’s ready for a new challenge: rather than resting on his bent forearms during tummy time, he may push straight up on extended arms, getting almost all his chest off the floor down to his belly button. After doing this for a week or two, you’ll begin to see some fancy developments: he’ll start pivoting in a circle and then moving (creeping) backward. Using some combination of pushing off with his arms, typically these earliest movements will take your baby sideways and backwards. These fun efforts mean that your baby will creep backward until he’s halfway under the couch or coffee table. You’ll watch him get stuck many times over, often to your amusement.

To encourage him to pivot (which strengthens his upper body) yet to lower his frustration (Frustration Tolerance – another skill) place a few tempting toys around him in a circle. This way, when his efforts take him away from the object of interest in front of him (because early movements tend to take babies sideways and backwards!) there will be a new and rewarding item that catches his attention.

This activity is called “Floor Time”. Unlike Tummy Time, where you may have needed to use a prop, position your baby carefully, and a receiving blanket was all that was needed, Floor Time requires more space. Your baby needs some space to begin to explore how his body can move, and motivation to investigate his environment. Months before he can crawl and even though he may not yet be able to roll, he’ll still figure out ways to somehow scooch, creep, wiggle or otherwise inch and arch himself a few feet in one direction or another.

A clean area rug or foam matting makes a perfect surface for floor time. Blankets and quilts tend to get bunched up under your baby’s efforts to move. When possible, bare feet is best for sensory input and for traction. Watch those little toes flex and dig into the surface to get leverage to push off with!

By six to eight months, your baby will figure out some version of movement. Though it may not be what you think of as “crawling”, most babies in this age group have some way of getting a few feet away from where you left them. HOW they move matters less than having the motor strength to move, and the cognitive desire to explore. Some babies will use their arms to pivot and creep backward, others will “commando crawl”, using lots of effort with their upper body to drag themselves forward. Some will use an amusing combination of rolling, shimmying or scooting to get around!

Time to Baby Proof!

Baby’s Head Shape: Flat Spots, Torticollis & Plagio

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Does your baby have a flat spot on the back of his head? Many babies do. Fortunately, most flat spots, called Positional Plagiocephaly, are mild and need no treatment other than positioning changes and monitoring. Learn how to prevent and treat flattening of your baby’s head, and when to speak with your pediatrician about concerns.

 What is Deformational Plagiocephaly or “Flat Head”?
Also called Positional Plagiocephaly, Deformational Plagio refers to the misshapen or asymmetric shape of the head. The flat spot is usually on the back of the baby’s head, though in some cases, for example, with torticollis, the flat area may be on one side of the skull.

What causes deformational plagiocephaly or “Flat Head”?
The most common cause of deformational plagiocephaly is positional. A newborn’s skull is soft and designed to grow quickly. When babies rest in one position for long periods of time, the skull begins to flatten from the external pressure against it. Since babies can spend a lot of time in the “passive recline position” (car seats, bouncer seats, swings, back-to-sleep position), it’s possible for a flat area to develop. Once a flattening occurs, it’s easier for the head to “resettle” there each time, allowing other parts of the skull to grow but not the flat area.

Shifting your newborn’s sleeping and resting positions is the best prevention for developing a flat spot. During diaper changes and for sleep, try alternating his “head and feet” position, reversing the way you usually lay your baby on his back. When your baby is awake and observed, use more tummy time and side-lying positions. Lots of awake tummy time with encouragement will also help by strengthening the neck, shoulder and arm muscles, which will eventually help your baby shift his own positions. Carrying, holding or “wearing” your baby without pressure on the back of his head will also encourage muscle development and prevents pressure against the flat spot.

Is a Bald Spot or stripe on the back of the head cause for concern?
No. It’s common for babies between 4 – 7 months to “wear away” an area of hair from turning their head side to side when in car seats, bouncer seats or sleeping on the back. This bald patch is normal and if not accompanied by significant skull flattening, is not a cause for worry. Bald patches tend to resolve between 9 to 12 months, as your baby will be sitting, crawling and moving more, spending less time on his back, allowing hair time to fill in again. Many fashionable babies sport a fine mullet.

Torticollis and Flat Head – 
A common cause of deformational plagiocephaly is muscular torticollis. Muscular torticollis (sometimes called “wry neck”) is a tightening of specific neck muscles, which prevent full motion and keep the baby’s head slightly tilted or turned to the side. Because torticollis causes the baby to keep his head at a specific angle, a flat spot may form as the baby’s head rests against the mattress or seat at the same position for repeated periods of time, leading to positional plagiocephaly.

Torticollis is often missed by parents and health care providers, since newborns have short necks and tend to lean or “slump” to one or another side. Make sure your baby is an “equal opportunity slumper” – sometimes leaning to the right side and other times the left, when sleeping, and check that your baby can turn his head equally to both sides. If you’re concerned about your baby’s persistent head-tilt or suspect restricted neck motion, speak to your pediatrician.

Treating Torticollis – for a baby with torticollis, treating the tightened muscles early is important to achieve full head movement as baby grows. Full motion of the head and neck helps with balance as well as the physical appearance of the head shape (and sometimes facial symmetry). Torticollis is best treated early, during your baby’s first several months of life when specific stretching and repositioning techniques are most effective. Your pediatrician may refer you to a pediatric physical therapist to learn specific stretching exercises and positioning tips for your baby’s particular needs.

What about Helmets?
Maybe you’ve seen a baby out in the store or mall wearing what seems like an infant-sized football helmet. This is a therapeutic device called a Cranial Band or Orthotic, worn to help correct a misshaped head.  In more severe Plagio, when flattening or asymmetry is significant and beginning to affect facial appearance (one eye or ear may begin to move out of line with the face), or, in situations where a baby was born very prematurely or has early closure of the skull bones, an Orthotic may be recommended. Made by a specialist, baby helmets are very lightweight, with a hard outer shell and foam lining. Very gentle pressure restricts growth in some areas while allowing the skull to “fill out” and freely grow around the flattened areas, rounding out the head. Helmet therapy typically takes 3 to 6 months with good results.  Babies generally adjust to wearing a helmet quickly – it’s harder on the parents usually due to comments from well-meaning strangers and additional appointments. But remember that mild flattening is common and usually doesn’t require treatment with a helmet.

 

How Babies Develop

Infant Health & Safety, , ,
Baby finding feet around 5 months, and eating them around 6 months is an example of typical infant cephalocaudal motor development
Baby finding feet around 5 months, and eating them around 6 months is an example of cephalocaudal infant development (and one of my all-time favorite baby poses…)

There are two overriding principles of overall infant motor development called: Cephalo-Caudal and Proximal-Distal. 

Cephalo-caudal development literally means “from head to tail”. Babies develop motor strength and muscle control starting at the very top: Cephalo- the Latin word for “Head”, toward the bottom: Caudal- Latin for “tail”.  This is why Tummy Time, which strengthens the head, neck and upper truck muscles, is so important.  Your baby will first work on achieving head and neck control, then upper body strength in the arms, shoulders and upper torso, then lower abdominal strength (watch for “sit-ups” and leg-thumps), and finally, the balance and strength and needed for sitting, then walking. There’s a reason we develop muscle strength and control from the top downward rather than from the bottom up: just imagine if our legs were able support the rest of our body when the trunk muscles and head/neck were still floppy and unable to stay upright and aligned! That wouldn’t work at all!

Proximal-Distal development means “from near to far”, with “near” referring to the very center of your baby’s body. In other words, development starts at the center, with increasing control gradually spreading from the center, outward, further and further. As an example, first your baby will work to control his arm movements (to fling his arm out in the correct direction to hit a dangling toy), then his whole hand (to grab something in a clumsy fist), then finally his fingers (the ability use two fingers – pincer grasp – to pick up a bit of cereal, or one finger to point or poke a toy).

Both principles of development, Cephalo-Caudal and Proximal-Distal exist and work together simultaneously. All humans, all over the world, for thousands of years, develop this same way. Your baby will follow these similar patterns of development. Though the timing may vary from baby to baby, the order that the developmental achievements occur will remain similar. Babies must achieve head control before they are able to work on sitting or walking. A baby needs to be able to control his arm movements before he can learn to pick up a grain of rice.

In addition to these principles of development, there are various areas of development, many of which may overlap one another.

Gross Motor Development refers to the bigger body muscle groups and movements. Some examples of Gross Motor Milestones are head control, sitting, crawling, standing, walking and running. Surprisingly, “rolling” is not considered a motor milestone. Rolling is quite variable and doesn’t happen in a predictable fashion.  Most gross motor milestones do occur in a predictable order (though not necessarily at an exact predictable age).

Fine Motor Development refers to the coordination of the smaller muscle groups. Intentionally bringing hands to the mouth, passing a toy from hand to hand or picking up a small bit of food are examples of fine motor development. Learn more about How Babies Find Their Hands

Other areas of infant development  include Language Development, Social-Emotional Development and Sensory Development.

Vary your baby’s position many times throughout the day. The passive recline position does not offer much in the way of muscle development or stimulation. Tummy time, holding and carrying, “wearing” your baby in a sling are all richer developmental opportunities.

Fine Motor Development for Babies

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"She started with the pair of links - and now has graduated to the Winkel!"
“She started with the pair of links – and now has graduated to the Winkel!”

How babies find and use their hands
A baby’s grasp is reflexive, and most young babies keep their hands tightly fisted, or curled closed, when they are awake and alert. You’ll notice your baby’s fists soften and open slightly when they are relaxed, such as halfway into a feeding or asleep.

Even though their fists are closed, the grasp reflex is present. When a baby feels something on their palm, he’ll usually respond by curling his fingers and holding on. By offering appropriate objects in an intentional way, you can help your baby become more aware of their hands and arms, and explore the movements and coordination leading to hand and arm control. The increasing voluntary control of the hands and fingers is called “Fine Motor Development”. (“Gross Motor Development” are bigger body movements like sitting and pulling to a stand – Learn more about How Babies Develop)

You can help your young baby build increasing awareness of their hands and work on developing more voluntary control over the movements of arms and hands by taking advantage of the grasp reflex.

Baby’s first “toy” – Just a pair of links.

Take two simple baby toy “links”, clicked together, and place them in your baby’s palm. If his fist is closed tightly, try tapping on the small part of your baby’s exposed palm below the curled fingers. The fingers will quickly relax then tighten again. Take that moment to gently unfold his fingers to place the link in his palm, then loop it over his fingers. This way, his thumb will serve as a hook to help keep the links in his hand even if his hand opens and closes several times over the playtime.

Once your baby is holding the pair of links, he’ll randomly move arms and hands, and when doing so, the links will gently click and clack. Over time, your baby will begin to move his arms and hands more, and will also bring his hand up to the mouth. As soon as a baby can deliberately bring hands toward the mouth, he will: this isn’t necessarily a sign of hunger or an emerging tooth. It’s a very normal developmental behavior that means “Awesome! I can get my hands in my mouth now! Nom Nom!” Your baby will mouth his hands and fingers, and any portion of the links that he can bring to his mouth.

Try “playing” with the links each day. You’ll probably notice that your baby begins to seem more aware of his hands when he’s holding the links and begins to move them with more intention.

ALSO: Add additional links to the toys that dangle down from your baby’s playmat arches so that his still-very-random arm and leg movements can connect with the toy. Bring the toys down to where your baby’s natural movements happen to be. Your baby may not be able to reach out and grab at the toys dangling over him for a while yet, but if the toys are dangling close to their hands, they will become much more interested and engaged.

Often babies will flail out with an arm or hand and hit a toy over and over, making it rattle and move, while looking off in a completely different direction. Just because he’s not looking, doesn’t mean he’s not working hard to figure out how to move his body to connect with the toy. ALSO moving his head, and the cognitive steps of his understanding what he’s seeing (wow, that’s my arm, with my hand, hitting that toy, which is making that noise) is still a whole lot of information to process. If he’s swiping out with his arm to connect with a toy over and over, he’s showing you a new purposeful skill even if he’s not looking.

Texture Exploration: let your baby feel different types of textures by helping him stroke his hand or fingers over things. Touch soft, hard, shiny, fluffy, warm, cool, crunchy, velvety, scratchy textures, and verbally describe for her what it feels like (called “narrating your activities”).

– Good early/first “toys” (you’re doing most of the work) – the simple pair of links. Other perfect early toys include soft fabric books, crunchy and crinkly toys and fabrics, and easy grasp rattles that are lightweight, easy to hold and easy to clean.

What comes next? You’ll begin to see one hand to the mouth more and more often by three months. Watch to see if your baby brings hands together to midline (the center of the body) when in the carseat or sitting upright. Usually by three months, your baby will be interested in grasping and clutching his own hands together, and by four months, will be working very hard at getting both hands in the mouth at the same time. He’s got to make room in there, because around five or six months, he’ll be trying to bring his foot into his mouth. Really! Fun times ahead.

A portion of this article appeared on the Baby+Co blog

Learning to Sit: Tripod Sitting Position

Infant Health & Safety, New Moms

Learning to sit: Tripod Position

Laila Rose tripod sit
Laila Rose shows off a lovely tripod or “propped” sit at almost five months old.

Once your baby’s neck and trunk muscles are strong enough, he’ll be ready to learn to sit up independently.

Although you can prop or support your baby in a sitting position by around three months, independent sitting doesn’t begin until your baby has sturdy head control and strong trunk and abdominal muscles to keep his head and spine in an upright, aligned position. Starting at about four months, your baby’s neck and head muscles strengthen rapidly through play, and he’ll learn to raise and hold his head up while lying on his stomach. That tummy time is important to strengthen the arm, shoulder and neck muscles that are needed for propping himself up in the sitting position, and later, to help with crawling.

At four months, your baby may have been able to prop himself up on his bent forearms for short periods of time, and at five months, he can probably push himself straight up with unbent arms and hold his chest off the ground, like a little pushup. Once he can do this, he probably also has the muscle strength to be able to practice a Tripod Sit.

Tripod Sitting is the term used for a baby who is sitting, but uses his arms as the tripod, the third “leg of the stool” to keep his body upright. Sit with your baby on a carpet or foam play mat and help position his legs with his knees pointing out toward the sides, and his feet several inches apart. Tripod sitting is also called “ring sitting” because the legs form an open ring position. This position gives him a wider base of support for more stability. Help him position his arms within the “ring” of his legs in the front, so he’s leaning slightly forward propped up on his hands.

His head is still heavy, so when tired, he’ll probably “melt” forward toward his feet, essentially folding himself in half – it looks quite uncomfortable to adults but babies don’t seem to mind much – and will either play with his toes, or end up rolling to one side and onto his back. When practicing tripod sitting and being distracted by someone walking by him in the room, he may turn his head to watch, and even that small movement may take him off balance, and over he’ll tumble!

As he practices tripod sitting at six months, you’ll see that the more you practice, the longer he’s able to maintain the position… until he decides to pick his hands up to reach for a toy or put his hands in his mouth. Then, over he will go. But after several weeks of tripod sitting, you’ll begin to see that he can lift first one hand, then both for short periods and still remain upright. Watch and notice that he is developing a sense of balance – as he feels himself tip to one side, does he begin to use that arm to stabilize himself back into an upright position? Exciting!

TLDR: Most babies can sit with support or tripod sit by the end of six months, and can sit well without support by eight months. Tummy time doesn’t go away, it transitions into floor time and is important for muscle development.