18 Aug 🥴Have you been given a Floor Seat for your little one at your Baby Shower? 😬Have you been placing your little one in a Floor Seater to help them to learn to sit?
Floor Seats for babies have been become popular at the past 15 years and can be easily bought in any Baby Goods store. However, like all baby equipment there are some inherent safety issues with the use of Floor Seats for babies.
🙅♀️3 Reasons Why Floor Seats are not good for Baby’s development
1. Floor Seats are designed so that babies sit into it with their bottoms lower than their knees, so they have a pelvis tilted backwards compared to if baby sits on the floor by themselves. The sitting posture within a Floor Seat is not the natural sitting posture that promotes core strength for sitting.
2. Floor Seats do not allow babies to explore and move in or out of sitting. Babies need to spend time on their tummy to play and learn to roll on and off their tummy, move in and out of sitting and lying. Spending too much time in a Floor Seat often leads to delays in gross motor skills milestones.
3. Floor Seats can be dangerous when babies outgrow them and parents continue to sit babies in them. When babies start to reach outside of the base of the Floor Seat because they are wanting to explore their environment, the most common accident that happens is babies tumble over with their legs still stuck in the Floor Seat. There has been recorded accidents of babies falling off kitchen bench tops while mothers are cooking in the kitchen, resulting in head injuries or broken arms. 😳
Here at My Favourite Physio, our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists 🤓do not recommend Floor Seats that are commercially available in baby shops for the above reasons. Instead we recommend that babies spend more time on their tummy for floor play and if needed, placed in supportive feeding chairs for sitting when parents are busy with house chores like cooking or cleaning.
If you are concerned about your baby’s gross motor skills, ring My Favourite Physio on 📱(02) 9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists today!🤓