Comments on: Questing.

By: Robin

Robin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:01:56 +0000

We had to switch her to a Prilosec compound for her reflux because nothing else was working and it seems to help, along with thickened liquids. She still doesn’t sit up on her own.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:41:14 +0000

I am newly introduced (to you/your site) and this is totally irrelevant to your baby situation, but I had to ask my pediatrician about my son’s uncircumcized little friend. I do believe my words were “I don’t have one of those so I have no idea what to do with it.”
:-)

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:45:39 +0000

Re tummy time for kids who hate it. Try placing your baby face down across your lap. Chest on one leg, belly on the other. Gently shift your knees from side to side to mimic their gas exercises and stroke their back with one hand, while making sure their head is ok with the other hand.
Their tummies get strong quickly if you modify your football hold into a more upright stance and tuck them in along your hip. Once their neck is strong, start postioning on your hip as soon as possible, they will use their tummy muscles to help cling to you.
If you are personally flexible, sit the baby up right between your legs and fold laundry over their head. It’s a great way to practise your own core strength.
Remember nothing lasts forever, not even colic, or the projectile vomit on the dress of the lady in the church pew behind you.

Ask someone you trust to take one of those wretched progression charts and calenderize it at the outside tolerance/timeline for your child’s birthday and growth. Never, ever look at one of those milestone development charts yourself. Everytime your kid beats the personal milestone chart, celebrate and write in a diary how excited you are about your baby’s growth.
Write stuff down, by the time the fifth baby comes within eight years you start to forget.

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:36:37 +0000

Just catching up on your blog. Our little preemie still has reflux and she’s 10 months actual, 6-1/2 months adjusted age. I quite elevating her bed when she started to even think about rolling over. She would only get on her side, but I still panicked about suffication and such. She was still on the apnea monitor, so she was probably home 3 months when I stopped. We had to switch her to a Prilosec compound for her reflux because nothing else was working and it seems to help, along with thickened liquids. She still doesn’t sit up on her own. She will stand up when holding her hands. We use the bumbo seat and also have an OT come out once a week with early intervention to help her develop her skills. The baby sit ups help strengthen her abdominal muscles so she can sit up unassisted….someday.

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:29:31 +0000

Way to old now to remember all the details very clearly, but I vaguely remember repeatedly putting kid #1 (not a preemie, and now about to turn 33) down in a sitting position when he was getting close to 6 months old — because “they” said that was the age of sitting up by oneself — and watching him slump slowly over. I was really jealous of those mothers of slightly older babies who just strode into a room and plopped the kid down on the floor and let it SIT there. Finally one day I noticed he was sort of sitting forward in his high chair and thought “huh! I wonder…” and sure enough, he could suddenly sit up for a while before tipping over. And then a longer while. And then suddenly he was in high school. And then… Dang that went fast.

By: amanda

amanda — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:18:37 +0000

irrelevant to the actual blog post (shame!): alexa, i am still waiting for you to join the crew of readers over at haven kimmel’s blog. her latest, iodine, is up for discussion and she is answering questions. next up we are discussing A Prayer for Owen Meany and she has mentioned asking John Irving to come by!

By: AmeliaSprout

AmeliaSprout — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:36:27 +0000

Just thought you would like to know, I just had M’s 18 month checkup, and managed to entirely forget to talk to her about her reflux meds, which we are about to be out of, and we need to decide if we want to continue.

So, umm… yeah. I remembered to ask about her much larger toe however, so I got that right (it’s still totally normal)

By: Christiana

Christiana — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:08:18 +0000

Oh, I’ve had dozens of forgotten questions, but when responding to your last post, I couldn’t remember them then, either! Something about being put on the spot.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:42:20 +0000

awesome advice from all these smart parents! the boppy is a great option–she can start learning to push herself back up with one arm if she tips, too, which is a precursor to getting from sittinghands and knees. um, but yes, basically, to teach her to sit you just prop her up over and over! the pull to sit over and over option is okay, but for preemies, they also tend to need to work on rotating their trunks, and it might not be the best idea to encourage that going-straight-forward pattern too much.

tummy time on your chest is a great option too. maybe you can trick her by lying flat on your back and having her on your tummy instead of the floor. :) if you roll up a hand towel or small baby blanket and put the roll (perpendicular to her body) under her chest/armpits, that can help her support her trunk weight on her forearms when she is on her tummy. a lot of babies REALLY like this.

the facilitation of rolling by crossing one leg over the other is right, but would be most easily understood with a real live PT/OT consult….rolling will help her learn to activate her trunk muscles to sit up better, and integrate both sides of her body to sit up better. all the skills feed into each other.

i’m starting to feel preachy. gonna stop now. hope this is helpful!

By: Foster

Foster — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:48:50 +0000

For sitting up, you can put her in her Boppy & do the tripod thing a pp suggested. You sit in front of her. You can also hold her hands while she is sitting. My daughter is the same adjusted age as Simone and cannot sit on the floor by herself, but can sit on her potty by herself (we practice elimination communication). If you are interested in building trunk muscles that way, a Baby Bjorn Little Potty costs only $10 (WAY cheaper than a Bumbo). Im sure Simone could sit on it w/ her clothes on, but since it’s a potty, pants are not necessary :) DD can sit on hers for as long as she likes w/ out falling.

If your baby hates tummy time, carry them upright & facing you so they are looking over your shoulder. When they are floppy lil nuggets, they will rest against you & get practice holding their head up and out from your body. As they grow, they will lean back away from you to look around better. This has been dds favourite way to be held since day one. Now she sits on my hip, tho, b/c she is no longer floppy!