8.5 month old boy sitting yet

[Seashore88]

My little boy is almost 8.5 months and isn’t sitting on his own yet - he prop sits, and can for a while if something interesting is going on in front of him, such as at his baby groups, but other times he’ll lower himself forward to the floor onto his tummy/side.

He does sit fairly independently at times, with me behind him, don’t always have to touch him he’ll just sit knowing I’m there. He can be quite wobbly and topples over when reaching for toys or gets excited then kicks his legs.

We had weight issues in the beginning where he dropped from 24th centile to 0.4th, and didn’t really start climbing back up the centiles until he was 3.5-4months (we have a paed for this who has never had any concerns and met all milestones so far). He’s now on 60th centile so has done very well to climb here in the last 4-5 months!

He’s never been a fan of tummy time and only just really started pushing up on his arms. He doesn’t tolerate it for long and rolls onto his back. He does like to play over my leg though. He’s looks like he’s working on his pincer grip at the moment when he’s eating etc, will get up on his knees when in tummy time (but hasn’t worked out he needs to push up on his arms too) and is very social - babbles a lot, loves peek-a-boo and started doing it himself and what (I think) looks like a little wave when I say “hiya” and wave at him - I’m taking it as a wave anyway, he mostly swings his arm about 😆

just wondering if anyone else’s little one is/has been the same? He just doesn’t seem
overly bothered about it!

The things he’s doing, like waving and working in his pincer grip sound good.

If you’re worried about sitting though, I’d look to see how he scores in the 8 month Ages & Stages. There’s a section on Gross motor skills. Absolutely fine if he scores in the grey in this section, if it’s in the black you’ll need to talk to your HV about arranging some physio or a referral to Paeds.

Thanks for your reply!
Are these forms evidence based and used in practice to date?
some things such as standing while holding hands I wouldn’t necessarily expect an 8 month old to do. Maybe with hands supporting them round the ribs though.

They are used yes and are based on what the majority will do.

When you see the HV for the 12 month check you’ll usually be expected to fill in the 12 month Ages & Stages.

Your LO isn’t expected to score in the white in every area. Usually they’ll score grey in one or two areas. If he’s scoring black in any area then I would show the results to your HV.

And I have pretty limited experience but yes, both of mine could bear weight if you held their hands at 8.5 months.