How to Help Your Baby Learn to Sit

As parents, it's natural to want to encourage and help our babies develop new skills. However, it's important to find the balance between supporting them and over-supporting them. When it comes to helping your baby learn to sit there is a fine line between these two and today I’m going to share my thoughts on the subject.

Like any other milestone, sitting will be a progression. I often hesitate when it comes to instructing parents on how to help teach their little ones to sit because sitting is an easy skill.

If babies are naturally progressing with skills like tummy time, rolling, and crawling then sitting will naturally be built in with these more complicated skills. Babies need strength, balance, and core muscles in order to sit and these things will develop as they learn other skills. 

These days, so many modern baby products focus on sitting upright that sitting doesn't usually need to be taught. Most of the seats and contraptions we own teach our babies how to stack their bodies allowing babies to be upright in their world. Our babies LOVE sitting because they can engage with their environment and families both visually and cognitively. 

It is important to keep in mind that you don't want to allow your baby to sit independently before they learn to roll and crawl.

By six months old babies should only be able to sit for about one minute before losing balance and falling over. Independent sitting doesn't usually happen until closer to 7 or 8 months. 

However, many babies in our modern society will learn to sit before 7 months, which is something I warn against.  You want to avoid having a baby that can sit perfectly at 5 months who is still struggling to roll.

My recommendation is to work on sitting 25% of the time and other skills like rolling and crawling 75% of the time. This balance will ensure your baby is getting enough practice with the hard stuff while you simultaneously help them with the easy skills. When babies work on these skills in combination it should all come together seamlessly.

Is your baby struggling with rolling? I have a great solution. My rolling master class will show you step-by-step how to help your baby learn to roll. You can start this as early as 2-3 months.

With my Learning to Roll Video Masterclass here and your baby will master this milestone in no time!

My Favorite Way to Help Your Baby Sit

At the 6-8 month mark when your baby is still wobbly when sitting, I recommend stepping in to help. Correctly supporting your baby when sitting is all about where you place your hands.

Most parents typically think about putting their hands right around the trunk of their baby to help them sit, however, this is not what I recommend. This actually gives them too much support. They will rely on you instead of using their muscles properly.

Instead, I recommend sitting behind them and putting your hands around their lower waist onto their thighs. As your baby's hands come forward to play with a toy they can still move backwards and forwards allowing them to use their core and test their balance. This will help to train their strength. If they fall backwards you are behind them to help them reengage and get back into a sitting position.

I hope these tips help when it comes to helping your baby to sit. Just remember, don't let your baby learn to sit perfectly before they learn to roll and crawl!