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Babies around the age of five-seven months might be able to remain in a sitting position when parents put them into that position, but they are still unable to sit up unaided.

In Hungary where we live the common knowledge (reinforced by pediatricians as well as by random web pages) seems to be that you should not let your baby be in a sitting position for a long time before they are able to sit up by themselves. The alleged reason is that their back muscles are not strong enough yet and hence this position can cause damage in their spine.

Googling around a little bit, I see a lot of controversy; while the claim is accepted in some communities, others have never heard of it. I understand that there might be other disadvantages to sitting but I'm less interested in those.

Is there any solid evidence supporting the theory of potential spine damage? The closest thread I have found is http://ask.metafilter.com/182420/BabyFilter-is-there-any-medical-evidence-that-its-bad-for-babies-to-sit-or-stand-before-they-can-get-into-those-positions-on-their-own; no such evidence emerged there.

sandris
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  • I would rather ask : is there anything you want to do that implies a long sitting position for your baby child ? Living in Belgium, we indeed got the same advice, was it from pediatrician or even the osteopath (who obviously is really into the business) to avoid long sitting positions, even in specialized equipment like maxi-cosi – Laurent S. Jul 06 '15 at 12:41
  • The thing is that he loves to sit; he likes it much more than lying on his back or stomach (which is also quite okay for him, but sitting beats it). He can look around much better and play with the things around him. Thus, I'm reluctant not to let him do so based on hearsay. – sandris Jul 06 '15 at 15:56
  • To be clear, he's over six months old now. – sandris Jul 06 '15 at 15:59
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    I'd be curious if the problem is more that it doesn't encourage them to work muscles that they otherwise would work to get into said position. IE, why you have babies lie on their tummies - part of it is to encourage them to develop muscles to turn over (as most babies hate tummy time). Sitting them up for them may lead to not working as hard on sitting-up muscles. (Though maybe it'll encourage them to learn how to do it themselves, who knows.) – Joe Jul 10 '15 at 18:18
  • I don't think there's any solid evidence that they're bad. But physical therapists (or physiotherapists) don't seem to like them. Here's an article where a PT counter's the claims of famous Bumpo seats. So, I think it's assumed that bad posture is bad, and a seat that enforces bad posture is thus bad, without official study. On the other side, there's also no studies/evidence I can find that show such devices help in any real way. –  Jul 10 '15 at 18:19
  • @Joe: Yes that's right, the view that lying on their tummies helps develop muscles is widespread and I'm willing to accept that. However, our boy is very active and moves all the time, so missing out on part of the development opportunities alone would not be a reason for me not to let him sit for some time. The possibility of long-term spinal problems would of course be. – sandris Jul 13 '15 at 08:33
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    Skeptics.SE very often does a very good job on questions of this type if you can find someone notable who makes the claim. (And if you can't that's probably an answer.) –  Apr 03 '17 at 15:34

1 Answers1

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It appears there are no significant studies of this type of development in children at present [so far as I could identify]. From my lay perspective the only study which looked relevant was Learning about gravity: segmental assessment of upright control as infants develop independent sitting (2015) but it did not address this question directly.

What we can say is that if supporting a baby's trunk to keep them upright (or placing them upright) had a marked effect that there would be a significant enough correlation with back/spinal problems to have warranted further research some time ago which does not appear to be the case. This is also compounded by the lower cost and increased availability of products and devices which hold infants upright or in a sitting position - this applies not just to the Bumbo style products but also car seats, pushchairs (strollers) and slings.

While absence of evidence is not evidence of absence the lack of research on the subject would tend to refute the 'common knowledge' that helping a baby into a sitting position causes harm.

Equally there is no evidence to support the idea that helping a baby to sit earlier confers any developmental advantage.

James Snell
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