Sitting Up
You see, Liam and Dash can sit up on their own. They can sit up on their own for long long periods if they'd like. But when they don't want to sit up is the problem. They'll hanging out on their tooshies just fine with better posture then I ever exhibit but then suddenly just... flop back. Sometimes forcefully, sometimes just letting gravity taking over. So I always have to put something behind them, like a pillow, but most typically, me.
Is there a way to help them learn to keep themselves upright? They've certainly had a good number of painful head bonks but that doesn't seem to have done the trick. Should I just let them keep falling back (and hurt themselves) until they figure it out? I don't like that idea. Is it just something that'll come with practice? I feel like I give them less practice than they may need since there's two of them to watch out for and just one of me to get them sitting and supported. Is there some good training method of which I'm just not aware?
Gates
I'm in the market for some safety gates for the stairs. I need something with a door. I also need something hands-free (two babies, two arms, you do the math). I'm finding surprisingly few. The one I've found with good reviews is this one. But it doesn't screw into the wall and I aint putting one of those at the top of the stairs, no sir! Sean and I were thinking though that maybe we could get some wood discs with a hole in the center, screw those into the wall, and have the braces fit into the donut hole so it can't budge. Does anyone have a reason this would be a bad idea?
Anyone have any other recommendations on gates?
Not a lot of help for you here. I think the sitting just take practice. Maybe helping them lean to the side so they start to understand there is a better way to get out of that position? I don't know :-). And we never found a great gate solution for our steep wood stairs. I just worked with the babies to teach them to go down on their tummies as soon as I could and made sure they were always in a room with the door shut upstairs until I knew they could get down without hurting themselves. Good luck :-)!
ReplyDeleteOn sitting up: So I guess they aren't crawling yet? I think they need to learn to go from sitting up to the crawl position. More options - leaning forward rather than falling back. I remember I had to teach Olivia this. She was happy as clam sitting and had no desire to reach out for things and start crawling. (It didn't help that I would fetch all her toys for her - oops). So here's what I (and our awesome physical therapist who did home visits (!)) did. When they are sitting with their toys around them. Put a toy a bit out of reach - more towards the side than in the middle. When they have a good reach going on, guide their legs so their knees get tucked in under their belly. Then they are in the crawling position.
ReplyDeleteYou can also encourage them to pull themselves to standing position. The couch is great for this. Put their toy on the couch when they are sitting. Then they go from sit, to crawl position to pull themselves up. Granted, this will come later. The key is to use a toy that are really want to play with at that moment as motivation to move into a new position. I betcha there are bunches of articles on this and maybe even how to videos. Lots of resources on hand that I didn't have 11 years ago!
On gates: I'm not much help there. We used cheap ones and Josh and I usually stepped over them. If you are holding two babies, what if you just put one down to open a gate? And how does Pogo get through the gate? Lol!
I like Jenny's comment. Caleb learned right away to lean forward (and a little to the side) to get out of the sitting position. I don't think he ever bonked his head hard enough to cry. And then he was able to do the army crawl from there. It was perfect. So yeah, use a toy as motivation.
ReplyDeleteFor gates, we have this one:http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265806
It's meant to be used at the top of stairs, it can be opened with one hand, it swings closed, and babies can't climb it. (We actually don't use it yet, but I've set it up just to see how it would work, and it seems like it'll be sooo nice. And it has a very competitive price tag.)
I'd just keep putting stuff behind them til they get stronger. And they'll get there without doing anything special. And gates? I'll be reading your comments...!
ReplyDeleteOn gates, there are several on Amazon that seem like what you're looking for. There are many swinging gates, ones w/ "doors", and some that open with foot pedals. Good luck! :)
ReplyDelete