Season 1, Episode 9: Standing Up

  • In this podcast episode titled “7. Baby Myths Busted: Sitting,” the focus is on debunking myths surrounding infant sitting. The episode emphasizes the importance of proper positioning and muscle development for infants before they begin sitting. It stresses the natural and joyful progression into sitting from a quadruped position, highlighting the need to support the spine against gravity. The text also warns against premature propping into sitting positions, citing the negative consequences of improper positioning such as W-sitting. Additionally, it underscores the significance of following the right developmental steps for infants, suggesting that discomfort caused by the inability to sit in a traditional desk position may lead to misdiagnoses of autism spectrum disorders in some cases.

  • Unveiling the Truth: Debunking Baby Sitting Myths

    Welcoming all parents, caregivers, and anyone curious about infant development! Today, we’re diving deep into the fascinating world of debunking baby sitting myths in our latest podcast episode titled “7. Baby Myths Busted: Sitting.”

    Babies reaching their sitting milestones is an exciting and natural part of their development, but there are numerous myths and misconceptions surrounding this crucial stage. Our episode shines a light on the importance of understanding the natural progression of sitting and the potential risks associated with premature positioning.

    One of the key takeaways from this episode is the emphasis on proper positioning and muscle development before infants begin sitting. We highlight the joyful journey from a quadruped position into sitting, emphasizing the need to support the spine against gravity. It’s not just about sitting—it’s about the steps that lead up to it.

    Moreover, we delve into the potential consequences of improper positioning, particularly the dangers of premature propping into sitting positions, including the widely unknown negative impact of W-sitting. By unraveling these misconceptions, we aim to provide clarity and empower caregivers to make informed decisions for their little ones.

    But it doesn’t stop there. Our podcast also raises an important point about the significance of following the right developmental steps for infants. Did you know that discomfort caused by the inability to sit in a traditional desk position may lead to misdiagnoses of autism spectrum disorders in some cases? This eye-opening insight underscores the crucial role that understanding developmental milestones plays in a child’s overall well-being.

    Join us in this eye-opening episode as we separate fact from fiction and empower you with the knowledge to support your baby’s journey into sitting. Tune in to “7. Baby Myths Busted: Sitting” to uncover the truth and gain a deeper understanding of infant development.

    Remember, knowledge is power, and with the right information, we can ensure that every baby reaches their sitting milestones safely and joyfully. Let’s debunk those myths together.

  • Title: Baby Myths Busted: Siting

    Show Notes:

    The podcast episode “7. Baby Myths Busted: Sitting” delves into the myths surrounding infant sitting and aims to debunk common misconceptions.

    Emphasizes the significance of proper positioning and muscle development in infants before they begin sitting, highlighting the natural and joyful progression from a quadruped position.

    Stresses the importance of supporting the infant’s spine against gravity during the sitting process.

    Warns against premature propping into sitting positions and discusses the negative consequences of improper positioning, such as W-sitting.

    Underscores the importance of following the right developmental steps for infants and suggests that discomfort caused by the inability to sit in a traditional desk position may lead to misdiagnoses of autism spectrum disorders in some cases.

  • 00:00 - 00:16

    Baby Myths Busted. A practical guide to giving your child the best start in life.

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    Hi everybody, welcome back to the podcast Baby Myths Busted. I am Jackie and this is Simon.

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    Today we are talking about sitting. So your baby sitting, not hiring a babysitter, just

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    when and how your baby should sit. So I think Simon really likes talking about this topic,

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    so prepare yourself everybody. First question, when should a baby sit? It's going to be a shock

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    horror to everybody, but the time in your baby's development that they will be able to transition

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    themselves into sitting, which is when you can put your baby into a sitting position,

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    only after they have gotten to a sitting position themselves, is between eight and ten months.

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    Eight and ten months. Okay, you never, before they are around that age and can transition

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    themselves into a sit, naturally, completely unassisted, you never put them on the ground,

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    on their bottom, in a sitting position? No. Which I've seen a million people do. It is everywhere

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    and I hate it. So we touched on this last episode, you never put them in a high chair to feed them

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    until they can sit by themselves. Correct. Yeah, and a lot of people would do that because when

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    you're starting to give your baby solids, it's before the age that you just said,

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    when they would be able to naturally transition into sitting. Yep. So if you want to increase

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    your baby's risk of choking, then sit them up to try and introduce them to solids. Really?

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    Yep. Choking? Yep. How come? Because something's not developed or? Your deep neck flexors,

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    which are deep in your neck and come down, also then control how well you can open and close your

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    throat, some of the involuntary muscles in there. If you sit your child before they're able to by

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    themselves, those deep neck flexor muscles can't oppose gravity. And so they will not function and

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    they will not help you control your jaw movement and therefore your swallowing action. And so if

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    you want to have the best opportunity to make your child choke, then yeah, sit them up early before

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    they can and try and feed them solids. Really? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Okay. That's making my head

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    spin. But yeah, that's very interesting. So recap the order of progression for us.

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    Your baby's born. First, we go through lots of tummy time. All right. And back time and side time.

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    So split your day up into quarters. They can lift their head. All right. About three months. About

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    three months. And then they start getting into this rolling pattern. About four and a half months.

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    About four and a half months. And then the next thing is sitting. The next big thing that you'll

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    notice as a parent is sitting. But you also might see around the same time they're starting to get

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    up onto their hands and knees. Yeah. Looking like they're preparing to crawl. Yeah. So it'll happen,

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    crawling and sitting most commonly happens simultaneously. Oh, it's supposed to. Yeah. But

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    I bet all the time it doesn't. In an untarnished child, sitting and crawling should happen

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    simultaneously. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So I did, I mentioned this last episode, but I did read

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    something that said your baby should be able to sit with assistance at six months. And then that

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    went on to say something like, then sit unassisted for eight months. But the whole sitting assisted

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    thing is banned. Correct? From my perspective, yeah. Yeah. So when they say that, do you think

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    they mean like a parent's holding them or you'd put them against the back of the couch or something?

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    Yeah. Or they have their hands on the floor or whatever to hold themselves up. And so if you

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    constantly put your baby down on the couch and they're leaning back against the couch or in a

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    high chair and they're leaning back against the high chair and they're held in a sitting position.

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    They won't be leaning back against the high chair. I'll give you the hot tip. What will they be doing?

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    They'll be slouched forward. Ah. Because their deep back muscles and their deep neck muscles.

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    Yeah. And their abdominal muscles do not have the capacity to oppose gravity yet.

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    And they take their weight in their arms. They'll take their weight in their arms. Yeah,

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    I've seen that. And they'll drop their head. Yeah. They are not ready to be able to oppose

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    gravity yet. And so you are teaching them this horrible pattern around using the wrong

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    musculature to do the wrong job in a time when they're not ready for it. Yeah. And so if you

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    want to have a child that you want to also just hound as a teenager, sit up straight,

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    don't slouch so much, pull your shoulders back, then yeah, make your baby sit early.

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    Wow. Go for your life. Okay. So if you're not sure if what you're doing is correct,

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    if you put your baby in a high chair and they are slouching forward and taking their weight on there,

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    I've seen it and I'm picturing it in my head. They've got the shrugged shoulders and the head's

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    protracted forward and kind of trying to look up and bouncing around a little bit. Then you know

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    that your baby's not ready to sit. If you sit them down and they put their hands on the floor,

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    they're not ready to sit. And so babies will sometimes sit early because their parents will

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    put them down on the ground over and over and over and put them in a sitting position and they'll

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    support themselves with their hands. Unfortunately, even the Australian Physiotherapy Association has

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    guidelines on how to teach your child to sit. And it starts at three months of age,

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    putting your child into a corner with cushions surrounding them and teaching them how to be

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    upright in adverted commas. Wow. And this is the problem because even big bodies in allied health

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    have this information out there about how you need to start teaching your baby how to sit from three

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    months of age. And a lot of that's to do because they want your baby to sit or be able to sit

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    before you start introducing them to solids. But as we discussed in the introducing the solids

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    episode, you can do it plenty other ways without having your baby sitting in a high chair or

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    something. So it's really hard for parents, caregivers, to be able to know what to do

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    because it's got this information out there, which is completely contradictory to about

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    70 years worth of data for coming out of Central Europe around how the typical baby will develop

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    and what to do at what age, et cetera. There are predictable patterns of movement that should

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    happen at this particular time and in this particular way if your baby is going to develop

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    appropriately. And if you interrupt that, the likelihood of that not developing appropriately

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    is much higher. Sitting is one of my biggest bugbears because we do this way too quickly

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    to what our body's capacity is enabled to do. And it's usually just because parents might think,

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    oh yeah, this is cool, this is easier. It's convenient. We're introducing them to solids,

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    so of course we're going to put them in a bumbo or strap them to a high chair or whatever because

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    that's what you do. They want to be social, so I sit them up and be social with everybody. That's

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    great. Yeah, it's cute too. It's cute. I'm very happy for you. But yeah, if you want to motivate

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    your child like that, then that's great. Get on the floor with them and be with them and allow

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    them to develop their own potential to get into sitting by themselves. Yeah. Okay. Encouraging

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    them to sit poorly is putting them in the position before they're ready. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Which

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    they will not be ready when you're introducing solids. No. I'll give you the hot tip. So about

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    eight to 10 months. No child is ready to sit at that age. So what should a sit look like? A good

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    sit? Their back should be perfectly upright and be almost rod-like straight. Yeah. With a really

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    long neck at the back. Yeah. So the chin will be like really tucked close to their chest. Yeah. Just

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    look at our second born. Yeah, yeah. It's that image. I'm thinking about him. And so be rod-like

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    straight through their back with a really long neck at the back. So it continues the rod all

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    the way to the bottom of the head. Yeah. And then typically they'll have one leg out straight and

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    one leg tucked in like you're going to do a hamstring stretch or something. Oh yeah, yeah.

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    That is like a standard sitting position. Yeah. Seen that. All right. Or you could do,

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    or they do two legs together long out in front. Yeah. Long sitting. And that's a,

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    it's more like a 10 month old type of position that you can get into. But the first one is one

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    leg out straight, one leg tucked. Yeah. So the tucked leg is the knee tucking into the, or the

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    foot I should say, tucking into the knee of the leg that's nice and long. Yeah. If I try and do

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    that now as an adult and it's not comfortable or it's a difficult position to get into,

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    does that maybe mean that I didn't develop that appropriately enough? It's a good chance. Yeah.

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    Yeah. Okay. Cause I can tell you a lot of people would not be able to do that long sit.

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    I can't sit like that for long periods of time. Yeah. We know you. And that's because I sat in

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    W sitting position for many years. Can we talk a little bit about W sitting? Sure.

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    Why not? So W sit is when your legs look like a W. Essentially when you're looking down at the

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    child and their legs are in a W. So they'll be sitting down and their feet will be splayed out

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    wider than their knees. Yeah. And they can get into this position from a very young age. If

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    they're going to do it, they can do it from as young as before. Like when they first start sitting.

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    When they start first getting up on their hands and knees. Oh yeah. They'll like rock back onto

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    their bum to do this rocking forward, rocking back and forward motion. Yeah. Which helps to

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    stimulate the ability to then crawl. It's an important part of the process. Yeah. But if

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    they then sit back on their heels and their feet start to splay out, that is the beginning of

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    W sitting. Yeah. And they can continue that right through to adulthood. It's a very strong pattern.

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    It's really hard to get rid of. Yes. One of my mates still, when he was playing rugby union,

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    getting off the ground off the bottom of a rock or more would get up in that position. He'd push

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    himself up into that position to the point where his muscle, one of his muscles in his

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    butt area was so stressed by this movement all the time. He almost developed like a cancerous lump

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    there. It was so bad. And that was purely because of the stress that was going through this muscle.

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    Wow. That is so ridiculous. So I'm not saying W sitting means you're getting a cancer,

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    but he did it for nearly 30 years when the muscle just couldn't cope with that anymore.

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    Yeah. But yeah, W sitting has long standing effects and the pattern is very strong,

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    very hard to get out of. And it looks, particularly as an adult, it just looks disgraceful. Yeah.

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    Yeah. I should get a photo of him sitting like that still to this day.

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    Oh yeah, yuck. I'll see him next week, so I'll be able to.

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    Just get him to take a photo. I'll take a photo of him for everyone and put it up somewhere so

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    you can all see. All right. So why is W sitting so bad? It's really bad for the development of

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    everything. Any part of your development is bad for, be that communication, intellect,

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    musculoskeletal, social. Why? Please elaborate. Musculoskeletal, yeah, I get because you're going

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    to encourage poor patterning. And as you said, it's hard to get out of and it's just going to,

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    it's like a platform for more rubbish movement, right?

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    Yeah. So there's, when you get into that position, you're doing a movement called

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    internal rotation of your hip, at the hip. And internal rotation of the hip is like a fake way

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    of creating stability and control of your hip. So what you're doing there is when you internally

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    rotate your femur, which is the long bone part of your hip, when you're internally rotating that,

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    you're jamming it into the socket to give you some increased bony stability in the joint.

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    And yeah, you'll feel stable and whatever else, but you won't be able to move very well off the

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    top of that. Very typically, those people that W sit will be those people that may pigeon toe

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    their gait or you see the people clattering their knees together, any number of gait parameters

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    you'll notice. So do they get into a W sit because it's just something that they happen

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    to do from that early age and it's not stopped? Or do they get into it because they can't

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    stabilize themselves in another way? So it's, oh, here, try this, try that. And oh, W sit works.

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    Let's do it. It's easier for your brain to do a lot of that because you don't have to then control

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    so many muscles to link together. All you have to do is jam two bones together and Bob's your

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    uncle, you've got stability. I'm achieving what I want to achieve. I want to sit in a position

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    where I can play with something in front of me or reach for something over there. I can still

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    achieve it. It's just not the right way to achieve it. And how do you stop it? It's really hard.

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    Yeah, I know. When your children get older, you can educate them about what to do with their legs.

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    Now, both of our boys had a tendency to want to W sit and that's probably my poor genetic coding

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    right there. Yeah, we got Ollie out of it pretty quickly, didn't we? Yeah, but he's got better

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    genetics. He must have more me. He's got more of you, which in some ways is atrocious and otherwise

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    much better. I couldn't W sit if I tried. You would not be able to W sit if you tried, no.

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    Whereas I could probably still do it. Yeah. Yuck. Please don't. And yeah, so both our boys, but

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    just one simple cue of legs. Well, I can just say it was legs to Ollie probably pretty early on and

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    he'd move his legs. Yeah, he was good. And we got daycare. They got daycare onto it. Yeah. Yeah.

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    And he would have stopped by the time we got to kindy. Easily. Yeah. Easily. But then our second

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    one's a bit harder because he's a bit more stubborn, a bit like his father. So they're

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    poor kids. He is getting more responsive though and he will fix his legs if you say legs. Yeah.

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    And he's getting to know that it's not a nice position. Yeah. He just still falls into it now

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    because it's a habit. Yeah, absolutely. And even though we've tried so hard and we, every time he

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    does it, we pull him out of it. It's, he just goes towards that sit more naturally than other things.

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    Yeah. And that's, he's probably, he's probably somewhat made like that too. Yeah. It's his

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    skeletal system. It's just easier to get into. Yeah. But yeah, he, we've educated him on, we

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    don't, you don't want to sit like a squash frog. Yeah. You want to show off your butterfly wings

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    with your legs. And he does respond really well to that. He understands that. He's four nearly five

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    now and he's getting there and I do believe he will be out of it soon. If I say legs though to

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    him, he knows exactly what I want. Yeah. So he will stop. But if he doesn't, if we stopped encouraging

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    him to sit some other way and he just kept doing it, he'd continue it all through primary school

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    or through high school. I don't possibly turn into your best mate who ripped his muscle off

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    bone playing footy. Yeah. Or cancerous type of formation in his muscle. Or it turns out like me

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    and has a knee reconstruction on either side, tears a million hamstrings, tears your hip

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    flexor off the bone to a million things like I did when I was younger, purely because my mechanics

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    weren't, like I looked all right when I moved, but just how I did it was the problem. Yeah. So

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    you essentially cheated your way through movement. Yep. Yeah. Yep. And even if someone sat in WCIT

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    for years and years and years, grew up, wanted to become an athlete and were quite athletic,

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    they would probably have a lower ceiling on their athleticism because if WCIT sat their whole life

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    and it could... Not necessarily ceiling on their athleticism, but they'll be a lot more prone to

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    injury. Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. And so a lot more prone then to plateau. Yeah. And even if they're

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    not an athlete, they're just more prone to injury full stop. Yep. Pick a joint in the body. Yeah. Or

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    I can relate as WCITing. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Good. Now you mentioned with WCITing, not just musculoskeletal

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    effects, but there are other effects. Yeah. So social effects. How social and... It's harder to

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    transfer out of WCIT. So if you're a really young, if you're a youngster, so you're sort of

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    like 12 to 18 month age and you're starting to try and interact with your peers and you're in WCIT,

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    it's really hard to then move with your other kids. And so you'd lose out socially. Oh wow, yeah.

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    But that's also an intellectual standpoint too. So if you can't sit in a good position and sit

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    still for longer periods of time or whatever that may be and you're trying to do a lesson,

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    you're not going to be able to get the same stimulus off the top of that either. Because

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    when you're sitting in a desk, which you do... Oh, they sat at desks... I don't know. They sit at

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    desks a little bit at kindy more in prep, much more in year one. But if you're sitting at a desk,

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    you're not in a WCIT. So you're forced to sit in a different position. It's uncomfortable for kids

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    that have WCIT their entire lives when you go and do that. And so then these days you're getting

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    these kids that are being diagnosed with some type of autism spectrum disorder because they

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    can't sit still at a desk. And I guarantee you most of them are just uncomfortable because they

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    need to shuffle around, they need to move, they need to do whatever. And a lot of that has to do

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    with either WCITing or some type of developmental thing as they've gone through their stages. And

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    it's not ASD, it's FYI. Yeah. A bad sit, WCIT, or if they're just slouching forward putting heaps

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    of weight through their arms. When they're trying to do it for the first time. Yeah, yeah. Anything

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    else we should look out for? Head position. Oh yeah. So if their head's forward of their spine.

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    Yeah. So if they're... the hole in their ear, if that's not lining up with the outside of the very

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    pointy bit on their shoulder. Oh yeah. Then they haven't got the position. Very commonly the ear will

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    be forward of the pointy bit of the shoulder. Oh yeah, yeah. You know that their deep neck flexor

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    muscles haven't adapted yet to being against gravity. And that is why sitting is so important

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    to delay for as long as possible because it is the first opportunity that your body has at trying to

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    oppose gravity directly against the spine. Which I imagine would be difficult if you've never done

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    it before. Yeah. And you've never had the vertical, you've had the horizontal. So if you're trying to,

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    you're laying on the ground or whatever that might be, you've got horizontally through your spine but

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    not vertically. And vertically against gravity is what and how we live moving forward. Standing up,

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    walking, running, doing everything like that. So this is the first opportunity you get and if you

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    stuff it up it makes it a lot harder for the rest of the things to be done well. Yeah. Good luck when

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    you're an adult trying to sit down at a desk and work all day and trying to pay attention to your

    18:55 - 18:58

    computer screen for that long because you're uncomfortable sitting. I guarantee you're going to

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    get sore shoulders, headaches, neck pain. Yeah. Hello physio Bill. Yeah, hello pay for my retirement again.

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    Now how does a baby transition into sitting? Very typically your baby will be able to prop

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    itself up onto its hands and knees. Yeah. And we call that a quadruped position. So you've got four

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    points of contact on the floor. Yeah. And as they go to sit back they're going to do their pulses

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    backwards and forwards. They will sit back on an oblique in an oblique direction. I mean like a

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    diagonal direction. Yeah. And they'll sit on to one butt cheek. Yeah. And then if say if the toy,

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    if they're sitting on to their left butt cheek and the toy is to the right hand side, they'll keep

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    spinning their body, pull their leg around and then they'll be sitting on both butt cheeks. I'm

    19:47 - 19:56

    like, Oh my God, this is sitting. So it is something you transfer into like that. Yeah. And

    19:56 - 20:01

    that is how you should see your baby transfer into sitting for the first time. Yeah. And if

    20:01 - 20:09

    they do it naturally, it makes them so happy. I remember this time and coupled with crawling

    20:09 - 20:15

    was my favorite, one of my favorite points because the babies were so happy because they,

    20:15 - 20:19

    I don't know, got a little bit of independence and they could sit and then they could move a bit

    20:19 - 20:27

    and it was so exciting. They had so much more range with their positioning. Yeah. Yeah. It's

    20:27 - 20:32

    very exciting. But I cannot stress how much you need to delay this for, because as I said,

    20:32 - 20:38

    it is the first opportunity of your spine has to have support against it, against the forces of

    20:38 - 20:44

    gravity. Yeah. And that's why W sitting is such a big thing or why it happens or partly why it

    20:44 - 20:49

    happens, because if you don't have your back extensors and your belly muscles and all the

    20:49 - 20:53

    things that line your spine from back in front and the deep neck flexors at the top, also your

    20:53 - 20:57

    pelvic floor down the bottom, you don't have all of those aspects working together.

    20:57 - 21:02

    To oppose gravity, you won't, and so what you'll do to try and keep in that position

    21:02 - 21:09

    or transfer into that position is try to use your bony parts of your joints to try and

    21:09 - 21:14

    create some stability so you don't have to use those muscles that are trying to upright

    21:14 - 21:18

    you against gravity, and that's how a big part of how W-sitting comes about.

    21:18 - 21:24

    And so you'll get all of those other muscles and things functioning appropriately if you're

    21:24 - 21:29

    going through the right steps at the right time, like your tummy time and your head up

    21:29 - 21:31

    and your rolling and all that sort of thing.

    21:31 - 21:36

    Yeah, but if you're getting your prerequisites ticked off, you're able to press your head

    21:36 - 21:40

    up off the floor at three months nice and, you know, if you're rolling, if you start

    21:40 - 21:45

    to do some smaller movements in between this and then being able to press yourself up into

    21:45 - 21:49

    a quadruped position, so on your hands and knees, that'll be the next thing before you

    21:49 - 21:53

    then transfer into sitting position.

    21:53 - 21:57

    And then if we are putting them on the ground all the time, here you go, sit up, because

    21:57 - 22:02

    your parents, they've fallen backwards, let's prop you up again, and they kind of prop them

    22:02 - 22:06

    up like they would a teddy, because a teddy's the same, it's got no ability to stabilise

    22:06 - 22:07

    itself essentially.

    22:07 - 22:10

    Yeah, but a three-month-old trying to sit is like a teddy.

    22:10 - 22:16

    Yeah, and so if we keep doing that for them, eventually they might stick, find some sort

    22:16 - 22:18

    of way to sit.

    22:18 - 22:23

    It's not appropriate, but if you do it enough, your body just figures out, oh, I've got to

    22:23 - 22:24

    do something to compensate for this.

    22:24 - 22:27

    If you do it enough and you're motivated enough to want to do it, then you will find a way,

    22:27 - 22:30

    it just won't be the ideal pattern.

    22:30 - 22:35

    And some kids, no matter what you throw at them, 60 to 70% of kids, no matter what you

    22:35 - 22:39

    throw at them, will still be able to sit even if you do not do this well.

    22:39 - 22:40

    But you should really...

    22:40 - 22:46

    I would not ever run the risk of ever doing this, because it just, even if they've got

    22:46 - 22:48

    a really good pattern, it weakens their pattern.

    22:48 - 22:50

    Yeah, we can tarnish it.

    22:50 - 22:53

    You should just assume that your baby is not in that 60 to 70%.

    22:53 - 22:54

    Absolutely.

    22:54 - 23:00

    And if they are in that 60 to 70%, great, but let's make that pattern really strong

    23:00 - 23:04

    and robust, so no matter what they do in life, they can hold onto it forever, because the

    23:04 - 23:09

    more poor patterning you give that really good pattern, the weaker that good pattern

    23:09 - 23:10

    is going to be.

    23:10 - 23:15

    Yeah, and I think by the time we get to this point in a baby's life, it's so nice and it's

    23:15 - 23:20

    so rewarding to see a baby do all of these things naturally themselves.

    23:20 - 23:21

    Independently.

    23:21 - 23:22

    Independently.

    23:22 - 23:23

    Yeah.

    23:23 - 23:26

    I think it's a really nice point in life.

    23:26 - 23:28

    But yes, that is sitting.

    23:28 - 23:31

    Anything else you want to add before we wrap it up?

    23:31 - 23:37

    No equipment, no help, no support, no cushions, no pressing up, no program to teach a child

    23:37 - 23:38

    how to sit.

    23:38 - 23:43

    Just let them figure it out for themselves and then, yeah, go through life and put them

    23:43 - 23:44

    in a high chair.

    23:44 - 23:47

    As soon as they sit by themselves, you can put them in a high chair, bang.

    23:47 - 23:48

    Yes.

    23:48 - 23:49

    Don't delay.

    23:49 - 23:50

    That's a milestone.

    23:50 - 23:51

    They've done it once.

    23:51 - 23:52

    They've done it once.

    23:52 - 23:53

    Put them in a high chair.

    23:53 - 23:54

    You can feed them like that.

    23:54 - 23:55

    Cool.

    23:55 - 23:56

    Yeah.

    23:56 - 23:57

    Move on.

    23:57 - 23:58

    But not until then.

    23:58 - 23:59

    But for those first, I don't know, two or three months, I suppose, that you're feeding

    23:59 - 24:02

    them, because as we said last time, last episode, you start feeding them solids about six months,

    24:02 - 24:05

    they're not going to sit until they're about eight to 10 months.

    24:05 - 24:11

    So for that gap in between, listen to our episode on introducing to solids and we talk

    24:11 - 24:16

    about how you do it, what you can use, but lay them in your arm and give them something

    24:16 - 24:18

    to hold on to.

    24:18 - 24:19

    All those different options.

    24:19 - 24:23

    And if your child does sit and you put them in a high chair to feed them, also don't sit

    24:23 - 24:26

    them there for half an hour because they're not going to be able to hold that position

    24:26 - 24:27

    for half an hour.

    24:27 - 24:28

    Yeah.

    24:28 - 24:29

    Okay.

    24:29 - 24:30

    So they do fatigue.

    24:30 - 24:31

    Yeah, they will.

    24:31 - 24:32

    Absolutely.

    24:32 - 24:33

    Just like any other human on the planet, they will fatigue.

    24:33 - 24:34

    Yeah.

    24:34 - 24:35

    Small bursts.

    24:35 - 24:36

    Small bursts.

    24:36 - 24:37

    Have them up there, give them a play for five minutes and then put them back down on the

    24:37 - 24:38

    ground.

    24:38 - 24:42

    And if they still want to play with the food, get like a mat on the ground that you want

    24:42 - 24:44

    to, they're allowed to get dirty and put all the food down there and they can play with

    24:44 - 24:45

    the food down there.

    24:45 - 24:52

    Like just get them variety of positions, but yeah, once they can transition into sitting

    24:52 - 24:56

    by themselves, then yes, then you can go for your life and put them down in a sitting position.

    24:56 - 24:57

    Yeah.

    24:57 - 25:00

    And you can always just put them down in a sitting position on the ground and feed them

    25:00 - 25:01

    their solids there.

    25:01 - 25:04

    But then when they're done, they'll just roll over into a crawl and see ya.

    25:04 - 25:05

    Yep.

    25:05 - 25:06

    Off you go.

    25:06 - 25:09

    And then let the child drive it themselves.

    25:09 - 25:13

    And then also when you are still putting your child down, when they can sit, don't just

    25:13 - 25:14

    put them down in sitting.

    25:14 - 25:15

    Oh yeah, true.

    25:15 - 25:18

    Because you want them to still learn how to transition into it.

    25:18 - 25:23

    So put them down on their belly or their back or something and let them rehearse the role

    25:23 - 25:24

    and-

    25:24 - 25:25

    Let them practice.

    25:25 - 25:28

    Every single time you put them down on the ground, it's a chance for them to learn how

    25:28 - 25:30

    to move and make that pattern stronger.

    25:30 - 25:31

    Gotcha.

    25:31 - 25:32

    All right.

    25:32 - 25:33

    Thank you very much.

    25:33 - 25:36

    I hope that one was insightful, all about sitting.

    25:36 - 25:41

    I'll wait for all the rebuttal and all the hate around that, but I don't care because

    25:41 - 25:44

    this is how you're going to make your child develop.

    25:44 - 25:46

    Having a child should not be a selfish act.

    25:46 - 25:47

    Yes.

    25:47 - 25:48

    All right.

    25:48 - 25:51

    Thank you everyone for listening and tune in next time.

    25:51 - 25:52

    Goodbye.

    25:52 - 25:52

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Season 1, Episode 8: Crawling