Encouraging a Stubborn Non-Sitter

For babies to reach their milestones, all sorts of developmental steps need to align. They have to have the right physical skills, they need to be cognitively prepared, they need to be strong enough to get there, and they must be motivated to do it. But sometimes, body composition plays a part, and there’s just no way around it. For example, if your baby is extra tall, it might be hard for her to find a good center of balance — and that was the case for Ava.

We recently spoke with Ava’s mom, Amanda, who has been working on helping her learn to sit. Ava was facing a struggle that lots of babies face when it comes to certain milestones: body composition. While it’s not a make-or-break situation, a baby’s body does play a part in achieving these steps. For ring-sitting, having a wide base of support and a proportional height-to-weight ratio helps a lot. Ava has been rocking a long, lean, and strong physique since day one. She’s strong, so she can roll, wiggle, pivot, and crawl like a champ, but without a lot of lower body mass, she has trouble balancing. Amanda reached out to talk to me about what she could do to encourage Ava to start sitting independently, and we came up with a plan.

Amanda talked to us about why Ava was having a hard time sitting, what steps they’ve taken to help her improve, and how much fun it’s been to see her work toward this milestone.

Thanks for talking with us, Amanda. Can you tell us about Ava?

Ava is a determined little babe. She’s been great at moving around on the ground, but she has decided that sitting was just not for her, and when she decides something, she really decides. We knew we needed to find a way to get her to like the process!

That’s important! So how old is Ava now and when did you start working on her sitting?

She’s eight months old now. We’ve been working with her on learning to sit since she was about five months old.

Why did you feel like you needed to seek outside resources or help with Ava’s sitting?

I didn’t have a good idea about when babies or how they learn to sit, so I started looking into how to do it. We started with assisted sitting, which was ok, and then we tried to work on independently sitting with a prop. Ava is clever, and she really just didn’t want to do it. She would do everything she could to not sit. I was getting frustrated, so I knew it was time to get more ideas from a pro.

What did you determine was keeping Ava from being interested in sitting?

Really it was the way her body and that she just straight up didn’t want to do it. She has had a long, lean, strong physique since she was born. It gave her the strength to roll, wiggle, and pivot easily. She even started crawling. But her height-to-weight ratio made sitting harder because she didn’t have much to balance on.

Ok, so you got some advice from me! I shared a few ideas for encouraging Ava to try sitting. Since it was Ava’s body composition and decisiveness that was keeping her from successfully sitting, she needed some dedicated and focused activities to get her there.

What practices worked for you and Ava?

We tried all kinds of things to get her happy about sitting and not let her escape from the activity. Putting her in a laundry basket or a diaper box worked well. We also had her straddle-sit on our legs, which she thought was tons of fun. We ring-sat around as she sat in a ring-sitting position. And finally, we sat her up and put a toy or a ball in front of her. Ultimately, it took some creativity to get her engaged in the practice.

We know developing these skills is definitely not a one-size-fits-all situation. What didn’t work for you and Ava?

Ava was hilarious when we tried to use a Boppy pillow to help her sit. She’s so smart, so she would just wiggle her way down off the pillow to her back, then she’d roll right out of it.

How have you been feeling about her progress? 

She’s getting there! She’ll still rocking her long and lean body composition, so she’ll be working on balancing in a sitting position for some time. However, she can prop-sit and can sit a little when placed in a seated position. She can even play a little in this position now! She will rotate and grab toys from the floor. And she’s slowly starting to figure out how to transition from sitting to her belly. 

Are you making any changes now that she’s improving?

We used to put rolled towels around her to support her in her high chair, but now she’s more comfortable and upright when sitting there. She doesn’t need the extra support. She seems so proud of herself now that she can sit in her high chair on her own, and it’s fun to watch her face light up!

That’s so fun! What’s your next goal for Ava?

We’re still working on side-sitting while playing with an activity table and getting into sitting from lying on her side. She’s not there yet, but Ava is always improving!