Sitting vs. Tummy Time

[goldmom]

DS2 is almost 6 months old and sits really nicely without support. He can even play with toys in both hands while sitting, but if they fall to the floor, he can only sometimes reach them. I've started keeping him sitting more than on his tummy now, but I'd really like for him to start crawling soon. Does sitting too much start effecting any developments? He does pretty well on his tummy, lifts really high and will move a little in a circle. He doesn't role back to front yet, and will only flip front to back by mistake. He can get on his knees, in a crawling position, but seems to only do it when, as a tummy sleeper, he's angry about having to go to sleep ( ). I know it's early for crawling still, but I don't want to prevent him from getting the tummy time if it's still very important for his development. Is it still very important?

[Buttonbobs]

I think the standard line is that time on the tummy is good for them to continue to develop towards crawling and if he enjoys being on his tummy I'd still offer that time for him to develop those muscles.

My DD hated tummy time due to reflex pain I think, so she never crawled and spent her time sitting up from about 5 months. She bottom shuffled at about 11 months but had been still until then, and then she started walking around 14-16 months. All LOs are different and IIWM I would probably just go with what made him happy.

[Hedgehog17]

I'd probably concentrate on rolling practise first, as it will strengthen his core muscles.

I did a lot of that with DS as he was also reluctant to be on his tummy (undiagnosed CMPI and reflux) because it really hurt him  Once he got good at rolling he quickly progressed to army crawling then proper crawling at 10mo 

[deb]

Nothing wrong with sitting per se if he's strong enough to do it unsupported, but Tummy Time will lead more reliably to crawling: he'll need to use his neck muscles to keep the head at the right height, which has the added benefit of getting his vision to converge properly (this is prime developmental time for that!), plus he'll be using his core and upper body more to strnegthen them for crawling (and just overall).

To help him get the hang of the cross-pattern crawl, put him down with a toy JUUUUUST out of reach and see if he can scoot himself toward it. If not, place a hand behind one of his feet and see if he can get the idea to push off that to propel himself forward. Once he gets that consistently, odds are he'll learn to dig his toes for a belly crawl/army crawl, and eventually to a belly-off-the-floor regular cross-pattern (right hand and left knee forward together, then switch).

[15milner]

Ditto to Deb. For all those development reasons of core strength, vision.