Tummy time = good, head control = poor

[IndiaBound]

Hi,

Our 6 month (next week), 4 month adjusted baby girl has done really well weight wise - she is very healthy on the charts for normal babies and has a large head circumference and is long in length.

The problem is that she has little or no head control when being held against our chests, or being held in a sitting position.

A month or so ago, on tummy time she just lay there, maybe sucked her hand and was not very interested. Also, if you lifted her straight, her head just flopped.

Now she seems to enjoy tummy time, will look up many times and some are 30 seconds long (sometimes she uses her arms, often she is in the superman pose!), and has learned how to roll - well she has done it say a dozen times back to front, and a couple of times front to back.

However, her head control is still very poor - if you hold her in a sitting position supporting her front and back, she will look up shakily for a few seconds then her head goes down, repeat this a few times and she no longer looks up.

She always seems to rest her head down the same way and when looking up, her head is not straight up but slanted - during tummy time this is not so pronounced and often her head seems vertical.

I wonder if this is just her developing slowly, and she is on the right path, if there is any exercise we can do to help her along, or anything else.

All advice welcome (first time parents!).

Thanks

G

she's doing very well to be rolling at that age! dd (34 weeker) wasn't rolling back to front till nearly 8 months corrected iirc.

are you under consultant care at the hospital? if so, I'd ask them - they'll have the best idea as to whether this is a concern or not. You could also see if your GP could refer you to a children's physio for assessment (we did this with dd, but privately - if you're in London I can recommend somewhere great for this).

My dd has had good head control but not great core strength - she often seems a bit slumped in comparison with her corrected age peers - but it hasn't seemed to stop her from learning to sit, crawl, cruise etc at the right sort of age. I know that's not the same issue as you're talking about but just in case it helps reassure you.

Thanks minipie,

We have a referral to a Physio in a few weeks time, I was just asking as since her tummy time head holding up has come on a lot, and she has started rolling, I would have thought her head control would have been better.

We are off on holiday next week so wondered if there was anything we could do then, with two parents full-time to help.