Strange habits

[Wonderland18]

My LO is 6 months and for the past month she’s been doing this strange planking thing pretty regularly. She puts her nose on the ground and lifts her hands and feet up like she’s sky diving. I’ve had someone say it’s an autistic thing to do due to sensory overload but she doesn’t seem particularly upset or bothered when she does it, maybe a little tired though?
Is it something to worry about or am I being dramatic over a short term habit?

[Wonderland18]

She also has a thing about putting blankets and stuff over her face, she’s not always playing and sometimes even gets annoyed if you take it off

[Smith888]

That is NOT autistic. I assume the person who told you was not a doctor?

[Wonderland18]

No it was a family member, said to keep an eye out for the other signs so it had me pretty worried.
I’ve looked up the early signs and she doesn’t seem to show any of them, maybe she just really likes doing it 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Smith888]

It's normal behaviour pre crawling.

[Wonderland18]

Thanks so much for confirming that for me, I’ve no idea why it was pointed out so strangely I just thought she enjoyed it!

[MammEEE]

It's just a new thing your LO has learnt. In time he'll move to doing something else that will probably look strange to you but is all normal
How inconsiderate for the family member to worry you over something so trivial!
My DS is nearly 8 months and he's gone through a few weird behaviours and had me worried at times but they've all passed and I feel a bit silly now having worried about them-e.g. Shaking his head, shaking one of his legs a lot more than the other. Now I realise he's found a new skill, he practises it and then stops.

[MammEEE]

Sorry, she not he*

[TigerQuoll]

My sister's friend's baby does the same thing, he's about 7 months and is close to crawling (will get up on hands and knees, sway back and forward, and move his knees forward but not his hands and then will faceplant)

[smashamasha]

It's a positive developmental stage - it strengthens their backs for sitting and crawling.

Please, if you are worried - ask a doc or health visitor - not family members of strangers on the internet!! It's a slippery slope (spoken from experience!)

[Wonderland18]

I meant to bring it up to the health visitor last week as it had been bothering me. It was quite a spiteful family member so I dunno if they done it just so I’d worry. The little one is really close to crawling and can shuffle on her knees so it adds up.. shan’t be taking advice off of family again

[Smith888]

@wonderland18 I really feel for you. Sadly not everyone wants to help. A friend of mine did this to me when my son was 7 years old. She thought her son had Asperger's and because my son was "fidgeting" at school she insisted my son did as well. I was so upset and regret it set the ball rolling and my son was put through a lot of unnecessary tests including an MRI which I feel could have been avoided (this was overseas and private docs are very free with testing). He was preemie so I had a lot of worries about his development in general, but it turned out there was no autism, no dyspraxia, nothing - it just took him longer to develop. Of course this won't happen here in the UK. We've had amazing care since moving back, but I hope you will see the danger of taking non-medical advice, especially when you are tired and weak with a little baby.