6 month old - normal arm/hand movements?

[Ak627]

Hello, I had my first baby in February. With a current lack of baby groups I don’t often see other babies, and am not able to compare how she is doing in her development, compared to other babies her age.

I have noticed my baby flails her arms and kicks her legs quite frequently. This is normally when she’s put down e.g in the bath or on her changing or play mats.
I feel when she does this, she sometimes seems frustrated, sometimes excited and other times it’s like she’s just moving her body around. I have Googled this and lots of people mention their baby does this when asleep, but I can’t find much about babies doing this when awake.

She also flexes her hands a lot and opens and closes her fingers repeatedly (almost like she’s waving). This is normally when she’s playing with something and I feel she’s maybe doing this to explore different textures, she also does it to me whilst she’s feeding. I have just started to notice her doing this more and more frequently.

I find if you google any of these things, you are immediately inundated with links to early signs of autism etc. I don’t want to panic myself, so really at this stage I’m just keen to hear from other mums about whether their baby was similar at 6 months old?

I will speak to my HV, but haven’t found them particularly helpful.

My baby did the same thing with hands opening and closing, and kicking legs loads at the same age. He is 12 months now and still does it but not as much, and is developing normally as far as i am aware (social, pointing and other things which make autism very unlikely).

My 6 month old daughter does the same! Constantly flails her arms up and down..she also tenses her arms and legs and looks a bit like a little soldier lol.
She also opens and closes her hands and looks at them as if she’s admiring a fresh manicure. Like you, we haven’t had a chance to meet many other babies to help get an idea of what’s normal and I’ve only had calls with a health visitor when she was a newborn (which weren’t helpful in the slightest).
How is your little one now as this post was created a few months ago?

Hi just wanted to know how is your LO doing with the hands? I mean does your baby still open and close the fingers? Please update as my LO does this a lot and I am so worried, have been to Pediatric but they say it’s too early to diagnosed anything. My baby does not babble only some sounds occasionally.

Totally normal, they actually look for the flailing as a key part of development, as that’s how babies build muscle to move.
Also, the hand thing is totally normal. They’re still learning hand control so it’s all fascinating to them!

Hey, how's your baby now? Mine has just started doing this now 🥴 he's 6.5 months old

Sorry only just seen your message. She’s totally fine - she’s 4 now!
I would not be worried about this at all - I was just an anxious first time mum.

Wondering how your daughter is doing now?

She’s totally fine, she’s just turned 6 😊