Lifting Head

[Chutch]

My dd is 12 weeks tomorrow and I am concerned that her head is still quite unsteady. When she is lying down I can hold her hands and she will pull up to a sitting position but her head will more often than not flop forwards as opposed to being straight. I have not really lain her on her tummy much but over the last few days I have and she can only raise her head very briefly - she seems to try to kick more with her legs to try to move her body. Should I be concerned? I am a first time mum.

This sounds totally normal IME. My ds is now 13 weeks, his head is fine when it is balanced directly above his body (eg on my shoulder) but he can't control the weight of it when he is at an angle, eg being pulled or lifted up. I remember the same with dd at this age. the baby book "what to expect..." suggests it can be much longer before the head is under control. Also ds doesn't want to move his body - he wants to try and grab things when he lies down, whereas friend's baby just rolls over all day long. They are just all different.

Give it a couple of weeks and you'll probably see a big difference.

This sounds like my dd (15 weeks) too. When pushed into a sitting position her head is still quite wobbly. She hates being on her front and won't really lift her head much, just lies there banging her nose on the rug...

If her head was still flopping completely back while you pull her up it might be worth checking out, but as it is she sounds fine.

Our Ds3 rolled for the first time at exactly 17 weeks......great news except he couldn't lift his head off the floor for longer than a few seconds and then only a inch or so off it. We used to call him 'little heavy head'.....poor little thing.

Don't worry, you're DD will manage it soon.

Mine never rolled -- at all, ever. Hated being on their fronts, couldn't get into a sitting position by themselves until after their first birthday. Dd1 didn't crawl until 14mths, walked at 18mths, ds bottom-shuffled from 13 months and didn't walk till 20 months.

Sorry, this wasn't intended to turn into a 'Get competitive about my child's delayed motor skills' post, but I used to get incredibly fed up with people going 'Oh, isn't he/she walking yet?' (subtext: your child must be a total retard).

I developed a variety of lines to fend off these idiots, the most successful being something along the lines of: 'No, she's too busy thinking about the Single European Currency to bother with mere walking'.

BTW they're both entirely healthy and normal in every way.

Thanks everyone - I feel much more reassured now. Just being a paranoid first time mum!