Babies are taking every opportunity to develop and practice new skills every day. At this point, you’ve probably seen your baby accomplish rolling, reaching for a toy, grabbing for their bottle, smiling, and turn to hear your voice. The next gross motor milestone that they will develop is sitting up, and you need to learn how to help your baby sit up independently.
Below I will go over what age baby can sit up, as well as important tips, positions, activities, equipment, and exercises to help baby sit up that you can use to assist your baby.
Why is Sitting Up Important for Babies?
Once your little one is sitting independently, they can more easily entertain themselves and be content alone for longer periods of time. They will become much more independent in exploring their bodies and surroundings.
Sitting is a great skill, not just because your baby is getting older and stronger, but because life with an infant should get a lot easier for you as a parent. When your baby can sit up, you can set them down if you need a free hand or just to get them dressed or play.
They’ll be much happier when they’re sitting up as they can use their hands and eyes more functionally to explore their environment and play. Once your baby goes upright, they will be able to use both hands together to bang toys, see across the room as they look for familiar faces, and even begin to digest their milk or formula better.
Sitting up is a gross motor skill that all babies will develop around the same age, but some may need a little more assistance and help to get there. Help your baby sit up on their own with the tips, activities, and exercises below.
When Should a Baby Be Able to Sit Up?
In the first few months of your baby’s life, you’ve been watching precursor skills evolve, such as holding their head up, pushing up on their forearms in tummy time, and strengthening their abdominals by reaching for their feet. The muscle strength that they have been gaining in their neck, chest, back, abdominals, and legs, for the past few months, will help them to sit independently.
Typically, babies can start learning to sit up around 4-7 months old.
At the beginning of this age range, your baby will probably have just enough trunk strength to prop themselves up with their hands stable on the ground or with you holding them up. They may lean to the side or forward to get their hands on the ground to keep them up.
When babies can start sitting up, you’re probably noticing them wobble around when you prop them up in a seated position and they may only last about 1 or 2 seconds before tipping over. This normally happens as they develop the neck and trunk strength to hold themselves up.
They may need your help at first to sit up, but you can gradually start taking your support away to watch them learn and practice by themselves.
Around 6 months (give or take a month or two), is when your baby should be able to sit up on their own without your support.
Related post: Symptoms and Relief for your Teething Baby
Every child grows at their own pace
If your baby isn’t sitting yet, there’s most likely no reason to worry. Children reach milestones at all different times and you shouldn’t dwell on a specific age of when they should sit up on their own.
Some of the most athletic superstars we know were late walkers and famous actors who were late talkers. This also goes for clumsy people who were early movers and shy, timid adults who were early talkers. The truth is, you would never know by seeing them now.
However, if you are concerned about your child’s development and they’re past 8 months and not sitting yet, be sure to speak with your pediatrician soon.
Related post: Developing Fine Motor Play Skills in your 3-6 Month Old Baby.
This post may contain affiliate links which I would receive a small commission should you make a purchase. I am not an expert on this topic, just a mom with a website.
6 Tips to Help a Baby Sit Up on Their Own
There are plenty of ways that you can help facilitate the neck and trunk strength needed to reach the next milestone. I have listed some tips, positions, and activities below for how to help your baby sit up on their own.
If you’re wondering – how can I help my baby learn to sit up – here are some tips to try.
1. Make sure they have been getting adequate tummy time
Reason #8,765,432 why this activity/skill is so important! Tummy time is the precursor to most motor developmental milestones. It helps build strong muscles in your baby’s neck, back, abdominals, and arms.
Lay them on their belly on a hard surface while they play so that they can lift their head and start to reach out their arms. These muscles will help your baby to roll, sit, crawl, and so many other skills down the road.
Read my whole post on The Benefits of Tummy Time and How to Make it Easier for your Baby.
2. Practice on a hard, stable surface
When trying out sitting with your baby, make sure you put them on a flat, hard surface, such as hardwood or tile floor, foam mat, or even carpet. This will give them maximum stability to be able to sit up on their own.
Once their muscles and balance get a little stronger, you can challenge them a bit more by placing them seated on a softer, unstable surface, such as on a bed, pillow, or couch.
This type of surface will make their trunk muscles work a lot harder so they can sit on more unstable surfaces.
3. Don’t keep them in gear too long
Baby gear, such as activity centers, bumbo seats, and jumpers, is great as a place for your baby to explore different positions and see the world from an upright position.
However, even though it may seem like they’re getting stronger by standing in a Jumperoo, they truly aren’t that helpful.
Their muscles aren’t actually working if they’re being supported in baby gear. For example, you’ll notice your baby slumped or sinking into the sides of these devices so the seat is supporting his body, not his muscles.
Keep them out of baby gear often to let them build strength from gravity. Have them spend more time in tummy time, lying on their backs, rolling around the floor, and propped up in sitting between your legs.
Related Post: 21 Developmental Activities and Play Ideas for Your 6 to 9 Month Old Baby
4. Baby gear is not always bad
Some baby gear is helpful in a baby’s development. For example, I do love the Skip Hop Activity Center for encouraging babies to be upright and bear weight on their legs.
If your baby is at the age or developmental stage when they can sit up on their own, it can be beneficial to giving them that extra practice. It does help to strengthen abdominal and back extensor muscles when they are standing tall and adjusting their weight in the middle of the equipment.
However, most of the time babies will be leaning into the wall of the stander which is not helping to strengthen their trunk muscles at all.
The Fisher Price Sit-Me-Up seat is good for the early months to get them used to sitting upright and facing eye to eye. However, it will not increase their trunk strength much because the muscles aren’t working hard when they’re being supported.
Related Post: The Only Toys you will Need for your 0-6 Month Old Baby
5. Keep cushions close to your baby
Of course, it’s best to be sitting right next to your child when they are learning to sit up on their own. However, you want to gradually decrease the amount of support you’re giving to them. Make sure that if you’re taking your hands off your baby, they have an easy place to land if they plop over.
6. Practice Every Day
One of the best ways to help an infant sit up is to practice every day. Your baby needs plenty of trial and error practice.
You need to stay close by, but let them practice sitting up and learning their body movements.
5 Positions to Help Your Infant Sit Up
Put your baby in the following positions to help baby sit up on their own.
1. Ring sit
Anytime your infant is sitting upright, you should place them in a ring sit position. Their knees should be bent and out to the side and feet just about touching (see image below).
This will provide them with a wide base that will support their upper body the best. If they start weeble wobbling, their legs being so far out to the side will help balance them out.
2. Use their own hands
When you sit your baby up in a ring sit, use their own hands on the ground to provide stability. They probably won’t know how to keep their hands on the ground like you want them to initially.
You want to sit behind them and place your hands over theirs while pushing them into the ground. Once they realize that their arms help keep them up, they will want to use those hands on the ground whenever they are sitting.
3. Gradually decrease support
Have baby facing away from you and sit him up between your legs. Place your hands on his trunk as low as you can possibly go without him falling over. This will gradually decrease the support you’re giving to help your baby sit up on their own.
The most support will be with your hands up high, closest to their armpit. The least support would be placing your hands on their lower waist, hips, or even the top of their thighs.
Giving baby support by holding down their legs even works on trunk control because your baby is using their abdominals to keep themselves upright.
Think about doing crunches when you were in elementary school (or even still now), you probably used to have someone hold your feet so you could perform better. This is a similar idea!
4. Use a Boppy
The great thing about a Boppy is its multi-functional use. In addition to a nursing pillow, it’s great for tummy time and supported sitting. Wrap the Boppy around your sitting baby.
It will stay in place low on their hips and provide just enough support to hold them up while still letting their abdominal and back extensor muscles do the work.
The Boppy also offers a great side cushion in case they fall over. I usually put a pillow in front of them where the Boppy opening is in case they fall forward. This is most helpful in the early stages of sitting when they fall over a lot.
5. Hold baby upright
Holding your baby in upright positions like over the shoulder and standing while on your lap will all help to increase their trunk strength and abdominal muscles. Again, gradually lower your hands and the support you give them to challenge their muscles to do more work.
7 Exercises to Help Baby Sit Up
Try these specific exercises for baby to sit up and activities to increase trunk and neck strength to get your baby sitting up on their own.
You don’t need fancy toys either, your baby will be just as engaged with an empty water bottle or serving spoon!
Check out some great activities and toys in my post Developing Fine Motor Play Skills in your 3-6 Month Old Baby.
1. Hold Your Baby in Upright Postures
The exercises to help baby sit up start when your baby is born – really!
Start by bringing your baby upright at your shoulder. You’ll notice your baby holding his head up more and working on his neck muscles. At first, his head will bob, but don’t worry; this is normal.
Another upright position that works well is holding your baby on your lap! As their head control gets stronger, you can move the support downward. Start by supporting his upper body, then mid-body, and finally just his hips.
2. Hang toys for baby to reach
You can hold toys in front of your baby and have him reach for them. Sitting them on an activity mat that has a toy bar, like this one, works great for this activity as well.
You don’t want to place toys on the ground for them to reach for because that will throw their balance off if they are looking down. If their head is aligned, facing front, their abs are working much harder.
Make sure you’re holding them with hands as low as possible or sitting very close to be on guard if they fall over. Hang the toys close and at eye level.
As your baby gets stronger, you can increase the distance so they’re leaning a bit, in order to strengthen those ab muscles more. When your baby can sit up on their own, they will be able to lean and reach to get to the toys themselves.
3. Pull to sit
This exercise can be done while your baby is lying flat on his back. A great time is to do it at every diaper change so you know you will be working on it a few times a day.
Sit by the feet of your infant, grab his hands, and slowly pull him up to a seated position. Give it enough time so that his head will pull forward and not lag back.
This activity helps them to develop their neck and abdominal muscles by contracting them as they sit up. It’s something that you can actually start doing when your baby is only 2 or 3 months old, as soon as they can start holding their head up independently.
If your baby is too little for this sitting-up exercise, you can pull your baby up by her forearms, putting your arm behind her shoulders to keep her head steady. Only pull your baby
4. Use a vertical surface
This V-Tech Sit-to-Stand Walker is a great toy that your baby can use now through learning to walk. Since it’s a vertical surface, it’s right in your baby’s line of sight. This will make it much easier for them to use their abdominal muscles to sit up tall.
5. Tummy Time
I mentioned it before, but tummy time is undoubtedly one of the most important exercises to help your baby sit up.
Infants spend a TON of time on their back, so tummy time gives them the opportunity to build muscles in their neck, arms, shoulders, back, and stomach.
Your baby needs daily, supervised tummy time as soon as his umbilical cord stump falls out. Most babies are fussy at first during tummy time, but as their muscles get stronger, it ends up not being as bad as they thought.
6. Bicycling
Bicycling my baby’s legs is one of my favorite tricks for relieving gas, but it also works out their legs, hips, knees, and abs. This simple trick helps babies sit up on their own!
My babies love when I bicycle their legs with the choo-choo sound. They think it’s hilarious; make it a game!
7. Picking Up Toys
Another one of the best exercises to help baby sit up is giving them toys to pick up. It’s like weight lifting for babies.
Picking up objects and toys improves your baby’s grasping ability, improves hand-eye coordination, and develops stronger shoulder, arm, and hand muscles.
This is so easy!
Put your baby in her high chair and put different toys in front of her to pick up. Encourage your baby to pick one up and put it down. Then, she should pick up another and set it down.
Really – it’s weight lifting for babies.
5 Toys and Baby Gear to Help Baby Sit Up Independently
If you’re looking for things to help baby sit up, here are some of the best toys and products on the market today.
1. Bumbo Baby Seat
Once your baby is three months old, you can use the Bumbo Baby Seat. It has a 30-pound weight limit, and it’s a great tool for helping babies sit up independently.
The contoured design helps your baby maintain a good posture while in the seated position. As long as your baby has proper head control when used, the Bumbo works on their core muscles needed for sitting up independently.
2. Regalo Little 2-in-1 Booster Seat
Regalo made this awesome 2-in-1 booster seat that starts with a grow-with-me floor seat and moves into a chair with a removable feeding tray.
You can start using this seat starting at four months old as a floor seat to practice holding up his head. Then, once your baby is old enough to seat solids, it can be used as a booster seat.
I love that this can be used for many months. It has a 33-pound weight limit and a removable foam insert for easy cleaning and comfort.
3. Fisher Price Sit Me Up Floor Seat
One of the most popular things to help baby sit up is the Sit Me Up created by Fisher-Price. You can start using this seat as soon as your baby holds his head up well.
The Sit Me Up has a soft, wide, comfortable seat with a removable, machine washable insert. Fisher-Price included two removable soft toys.
One of the best features is that it folds flat for storage and only weighs a few pounds. It holds babies up to 25 pounds.
4. Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Around the Town Learning Table
When your baby is starting to practice sitting up independently, the Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Table gives your baby fun activities that help develop skills and muscles.
Babies love this learning table!
It’s full of hands-on activities that will keep your baby busy. It also grows with your baby; start by placing it on the floor without the legs, but when your baby is learning how to stand, attach the legs and it provides more fun.
5. Infantino Prop-a-Pillar Tummy Time & Seated Support
If you’re looking for something that you can use for your newborn, the Infantino Prop-a-Pillar is a great option.
It’s a caterpillar shaped like a letter “S” to provide supported tummy time. This gives your baby time to develop his head and neck muscles.
When your baby gets older, it curls into a “C” shape to support your baby when he learns how to sit up independently. Infantino added two detachable toys to entertain your baby.
I hope this article helped you to learn when your baby can sit up, as well as some exercises and activities to help baby sit up on their own.
Check out this Fine Motor Printable Checklist to stay up-to-date on your baby’s development and milestones.
