How to entertain?

[dramamama04]

Okay I've read a lot of the negative responses to exersaucers, walkers, jumperoos and such and I really want to know how you entertain your babies. At six months Cameron loves to be active. He can't sit up by himself and he's not crawling. Tummy time is also null and void since it seems like he doesn't like to hold his head up for long periods of time. I am in school all day and I don't have a lot of time to hold him and play with him until he falls asleep. What do you guys do?

[icunurse]

Until Connor was crawling well, he spent a good deal of time under his activity gym. I also used the Boppy a lot to prop him up to sit or for a new dimension to tummy-time (prop him up on his arms and belly over the Boppy and put fun bigger toys in front of him). Once he was crawling about, we have a sunken living room, so I put a lot of toys around for him to crawl between. His favorites - Leapfrog table (you can lay it on the ground without the legs until your child is ready for the legs to be added) and he also likes the My First Mega Blocks Discovery (even now, he crawls into it with toys for his own space :) )
Traci
~Connor's Mom~
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[brittone2]

Lots of tummy time (so so important), practice rolling, finger plays and songs, Gymini, practice sitting with support...

The playpen is great if you can't be right there. It is safe but still allows the baby "floor" time to work on developmental skills.


DS spent a ton of time in the sling as well. I talked to him about everything I was doing as this is something speech therapists tend to recommend for aiding early speech development. He seemed to enjoy watching what I was doing :) (and still does at almost 13 months).

[lilycat88]

We used an activity gym on the floor sometimes as well. We also started using her high chair quite early. By 2-3 months, she was hanging out in her high chair wherever we were if we were doing something that prohibited us from holding her.

I know you said that time is a huge issue. Susanna was beginning to sit up unassisted by about 5 months. She really enjoyed being up and reaching for toys. What we found was that with about a week of spending time with her on the floor helping her learn to support herself, she was ready to do it herself. Of course, for the first few weeks, she at least had a Boppy behind her and she was on carpet so the inevitable tumbles weren't harmful. She's 8.5 months now and not crawling but is still happy as a lark sitting and playing with toys. That one week of really spending a lot of time working on one skill made our lives much easier and happier for her and us.

The stage where they aren't sitting up and aren't happy lying down is tough. It will pass, though.

[tinkerbell1217]

Fortunately we LOVE tummy time at my house and I have no negative feelings about exersaucers for short periods of time. We also still swing in the Aquarium swing too. She also LOVES her play gym. It's the Whoozit gym. She also loves to watch Baby Einstein DVD's. I know its TV, but at least its good TV! Other than that we go for a walk once a day and between that and meals and naps the day is gone!

[Saartje]

Looking back to that stage... mostly, I let Ishie creep around on the floor. I put the Gymini out, started him off there, and he would make his way all around the floor, pushing himself on his belly. Eventually, he would get entirely off the Gymini, turn himself around, and head back over to it: it seems those toys looked like fun from that distance.

You might also try letting him stand up or even walk around with you holding him up. You can support part of his weight or not; follow his lead in this.

Hm, what else? Ishie loves bath time, so we would get in the tub, run the water, and then bring him into the tub with us; he had a parent for support, but room enough to splash and play. (We kept a hand under him and let him "float" on his back so that he had freedom to kick as he pleased.)

As for tummy time being null and void... you need to not let tummy time be null and void. Make sure he gets as much as he will stand every day -- it doesn't have to be much at a time, just until he gets fussy about it, though if he doesn't like the idea you may have some initial protests to get past -- because this will help him learn to hold his head up longer (and he'll like it more) and become mobile faster (and he'll like it more).

The basic problem with exersaucers etc. is that at this stage, when baby wants to be active but can't manage it on his own, it's very easy to let baby fill that desire to be active with the devices instead of working to achieve it. This means it takes longer for them to get there on their own.

My biggest thing when Ishie went through a brief phase of "But I don't WANT to be on the floor for tummy time" was to get down on my belly face-to-face with him to distract him. He seemed to think that was an interesting perspective.

I'm not sure what you're saying about your being in school all day -- is your concern that you don't have the time to do these things with him yourself, or that you don't want to spend what time you do have with him doing these things? Either way, the answer is much the same; whoever is caring for your sweet baby should be doing these things with him, to fuel his love for keeping active.