3 Skills To Help Your Baby Learn To Sit Up
Having a baby who can sit up independently is an exciting transition for many little ones and for their parents!
They’re able to set baby down nearby while making coffee, while putting shoes on before heading out the door, while answering the phone.
And then there are the huge developmental transitions that happen when a baby "gets upright." With their newfound sitting skills, baby will be orienting vertically to their surroundings and accessing the objects in it in the ways they will for the rest of their upright life. That's major!
Most babies don’t need us to “TEACH” them to sit up - they simply need for us to get out of their way (which we get in by putting them in baby gear like seats and car seat carriers and exersaucers and jumpers) and they need lots of opportunities to master the mini-milestones that lead to sitting.
So let's look at 3 skills babies typically master on the path to sitting and look at some ways you can set the stage for baby to naturally develop them.
3 Things You May Not Realize Help Baby Learn To Sit Up
1 - Head Control
(which starts earlier than you think)
You might be able to guess that developing head control is important for learning to sit up, but what you probably don't realize is how early that skill development starts. We usually think of head control as being able to hold the head up and steady when baby is held upright, but it actually begins with the "mini-milestone" of holding the head centered (nerdy child development term: head in midline) when laying on the back.
Look back at photos of your little one in the first 8 weeks if you have them (or glance over at your kiddo if you have a newborn) laying fully supported flat on the floor or on a crib mattress and check their head position. I'd be willing to bet a month's worth of diapers that your little one's head is turned to one side or the other. On average, midline head control when laying on the back develops around 2.5 months of age (be sure to adjust your baby's age if he/she was born early). Reminder: most babies won’t be average, some will gain this skill before 2.5 months, some will gain it after 2.5 months, some will never gain head control. All of these are different ways that humans develop.
This sitting mini-milestone of developing early head control is just ANOTHER reason why it's important to make sure your baby is getting plenty of daily playtime outside of baby gear (which I like to call "floortime play"). A baby swing or bouncy seat might seem like the perfect place for your squishy newborn to lounge until you realize that your baby has really important developmental work to do when awake. The gravity of the semi-reclined position of most infant baby gear makes the work of holding the head steady and centered even harder. Too much time in gear can inhibit your little one's ability to naturally work toward developing early head control, upright head control and - eventually - sitting skills.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Give your baby daily playtime on a playmat on the floor or other flat surface to practice head control. Wear and hold your baby upright as much as is practical instead of using baby seats, swings or other semi-reclined devices. Be aware of how much time your baby spends daily in baby gear and strive to use gear for awake time only when it feels necessary and for an average of 2 hours or less per day when possible.
2 - Body Awareness
When it comes to babies, even the steadiest sitter can’t sit well on a stool or bench. Why? Because babies use more than just their bottoms for sitting. Through exploration and trial and error, your little one will discover that they can use their hands, feet, legs and bottom as weight-bearing surfaces for sitting.
That body awareness starts developing very early on for most babies and Tummy Time can play a key role. Through early Tummy Time, your little one learns to use their hands as a weight-bearing surface. It's the first big experience most babies have staying upright on their own against gravity (accidental rolling from belly to back is evidence that it's trickier than we grown-ups might think). Learning to use their feet and legs as support comes as your little one begins to sit upright with help.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Offer your baby daily Tummy Time, beginning as early as you can. Short periods of belly-down play frequently throughout the day are best. Wear and carry your baby upright to allow head control practice.
3 - Wobbling Practice
Babies do a really smart, really strategic and really effective thing to help them learn to sit - they WOBBLE! It's easy to see wobbling as a sign that your baby is unsteady, but it's really exciting when you learn to see it as a sign that your baby is learning and developing balance skill for sitting and other upright milestones.
Every movement - every wobble - sends new sensory information to your child's brain from their available senses - most often the visual sense, their movement (vestibular) sense, their pressure & stretch (proprioceptive) sense and their touch (tactile) sense. This wobbling info elicits actions from your baby - tiny adjustments of her head position or body position to slightly shift weight and try to bring them back to center. If a wobble is too big, it might elicit a reflexive action like a sudden reach of the arms to stop a fall or an ab crunch to slow a backwards tumble (and, quite often, it will result in a tumble so make sure your little one is sitting on a soft surface).
What most parents hope for when their baby begins to work on sitting is a steady sitter, but as a pediatric Occupational Therapist what I hope to see is a baby who spends some time wobbling, wobbling, wobbling! The constant loop of sensory information coming in and postural adjustments going out of the brain is developmentally rich; it isn't a step in the progression toward sitting to be skipped over or rushed through.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Once your baby shows signs of readiness for sitting allow baby a few minutes of daily practice wobbling (and falling) on a firm but padded surface - NOT in a baby seat or other gear marketed for sitting. You can use pillows or blankets or these to create a safe "fall zone" for your little one or use a padded sitting mat (my favorite sitting mat is the Toki Mat). Until your baby has mastered rolling back to belly and belly to back and is working on pre-crawling skills (getting onto hands and knees, pivoting around on the belly in Tummy Time, etc.) I recommend limiting sitting practice and emphasizing floortime play on the belly and back. Why? Because "horizontal babies need plenty of time horizontal." Learn exactly what I mean and why it's important in the video portion of my free Happy Healthy Baby Gear Guide!
WHEN IS BABY READY FOR A BABY SEAT?
Baby seats like Bumbos and Sit-Me-Up seats aren't necessary pieces of equipment. They don’t “teach” baby to sit up. But many parents have them or want to use them because they’re convenient and because babies often like being upright. One of the biggest developmental concerns of baby seats is that people tend to use them when baby is too young and developmentally not ready to be supported upright in healthy alignment by anything other than a caregiver's hands or body.
Here's a video that explains how to know your baby is ready for a seat and why time spent in baby seats shouldn't be considered sitting practice (and what developmentally helpful sitting practice looks like) :
Here are some alternatives to a Bumbo seat that I like to use with wobbly sitters. And here’s a side-by-side comparison of baby seats.
Want more baby gear buying tips & product recommendations?
The Happy Healthy Baby Gear Guide
birth - 12 months // free resource
A developmental guide to choosing and using baby gear wisely for your baby’s best start. Plus get an insider’s look at the products an OT mama uses and loves.
