We started off with him between our legs so we could support him. Then to stop him falling over we gradually increase distance, but always being aware of where they fall. If he was going to fall over is his head going to be okay and could we soften the landing. This is the main reason we moved from having a playmat to using foam tiles so he had padding.
Recently we’ve been trying to increase the amount of time my son sits up for. Practising sitting and increasing the time you baby does it for greatly helps there development including tummy muscles.
Toys to help
Increasing sitting up practise means we are having to keep him engaged more in playtime with objects! Toys he’s been enjoying are the Picnic Basket and Hide n Squeak eggs, he loves tipping all the eggs all over the floor.
He also really enjoys when we all sit in his playpen and help push the shapes into the picnic basket. I like to gradually place the different food into the slots but not push them in. I wait for him to either take them out and chew on them or for him to push them through. We do pretend play with the cups to mimic drinking and talk through what the different foods are.
Sitting practise and repetition is key
We’ve been increasing the amount of time we play upright for from 10 minutes to 15 or 20. This completely depends on his attention span as sometimes we need to cut it short if he’s tired or sometimes he gets bored and wants us to play something else.
Repeating this at least once a day has shown so much improvement. Posture and self correction come with practise and he is now able to stop himself falling. It may feel repetitive but the reward when they start to it up for longer periods of time and then are able to play upright is so rewarding.
I like to try to change up what toys he is playing with upright, including sometimes just playing peeka boo to keep him entertained.