3 month old hand use. Need advice

[Ayd7815]

Hi all. I wondered if you could give me some insight.
My 3 month old started using her hands to reach for objects in play gym and at 2.5 months she would use one hand to reach and bat at toys. But she I noticed she did it with each hand ok

Now she started to grab at 3 months and she tends to reach and grab with her left hand only for some reason. And not much interested in using her right atm.

She will grab with both hands if the toy is really close to her. She also grabs with both hands if I place in her hands a toy. She brings hands to midline well since 1 month. She rubs her eyes equally and moves them equally when kicking and thrashing arms and when she’s stretching after nap. She bring both hands to mouth and holds her bottle sometimes with both hands equally. Until this week I never even worried about this.
Bears weight on both legs same.

Should I be worried about this? She stares more at her left hand too. And it’s like she hasn’t fully discovered her right as she has her left. In terms of looking at them and grabbing dangling toys and grabbing.

Really stuck. Can anyone else tell me if this is normal?

Also should add she’s following all other milestones ok too. And is got really good head control and is starting to roll over too. And she’s fine with the arm use in tummy time x

Normal. Totally normal.

@LouiseTrees really? It’s normal? Won’t tell you what google says about this scared me half to death! When do they start using both hands to grab properly? X

When they “ discover” both. I’d say if in about a month or so time it still feels like she’s ignoring one hand ( because she’ll probably also have discovered both feet in that time) then worry but not too much unless it’s very marked favouring. Remember she could be able to use both ( and try and encourage this) but actually just be left handed so prefers that.

Hi @LouiseTrees she already definitely uses both like she will use that hand for example to stroke or grab my hand while I’m feeding her for example and she runs her eyes and lifts them both in the air same etc. It’s just when it comes to toys etc I hope it’s resolved in a months time x thanks for your feedback

My 7 month old done this and I was worried but at about 5/6 months she started to use both.

Hi @Vicky1989x
Thanks for your response. Did you do anything to encourage your LO to use both?

@Ayd7815 She would literally only use her left hand for everything so I would hand her toys in her right hand instead. Took her a little while but eventually she started to use both equally!

I remember talking to a friend about it as I was so worried, even in her jumperoo she would keep her right arm by her side and only play with her left, but then the next day she started using both.

Hi @Vicky1989x
Thanks for the tip
With mine she’s 12 weeks only and she seems to use both equally except for reaching and grabbing but she does lift them both in the air equally at times also she’s only started grabbing very recently

I was never concerned about this before this as I thought she used both the same. She doesn’t keep right one arm by her side when doing anything except reaching and grabbing

But mind you today she did bat a bit at a toy with her right hand... not sure

@Ayd7815 My DD was 4 weeks early and only weighed 3lb 9oz so she’s been a bit slower on the development front.. she didn’t really start grabbing toys until 4 months.

I think if your LO still seems to favour one hand over the other by 5 months then ask a HV/GP but sounds like she’s doing just fine

She sounds absolutely fine. If you wanted to encourage her, put one of those Velcro toys on her right hand to give a reason to be interested in.

Try not to Google every little thing, you'll drive yourself crazy.

@Vicky1989x thanks for your response. My son was born at a similar weight because he was premie so I know what that’s like. But my daughter was 10lbs! It’s a new experience for me this time! X

@Wherethereshope thanks I hope all is well with her. It’s really odd but suddenly yesterday she started reaching with both. So I hope it’s all ok and she just needed time to discover both. Fingers crossed all is ok. And gosh yes google is dreadful and scary! Thanks for taking time to respond x

@Ayd7815 My DD is now 7 months but at around 3 months I was so concerned that she was only using her 1 hand that I went to the Drs. He dangled things in front of her & she showed she could use both hands but chose to use her left more. He wasn't concerned & now 4 months later she's using both hands to reach for things.

Hi @PrincessConsuela12 thanks for taking the time to post. It’s really odd but a few days after posting this she started using the other hand and uses both to reach and grabs toys. She must of known mummy was worried.

All I did was show her other hand by putting in toys in her hand and dangling toys near the hand she didn’t use to reach much and clapping her hands and showing them to her and then she just figured it out I suppose.

I hope this helps someone else who reads this in the future x

@Ayd7815 That's great! Yes hopefully it does, I spent hours googling & the most awful things came up, it was very stressful