When Do Babies Start Lifting Their Heads?
A well-known fact about newborns is that they have no head or neck control. They spent the last nine months floating in cozy, warm amniotic fluid and had no cares in the world. Holding a newborn baby means supporting their head and neck so that they don’t flop around like a fish out of water!
You can expect your little bundle of joy to have no head control for the first three months of their life. Thankfully, though, they begin to gain some control after that! At three months, they should have partial neck control and complete neck control around six months old. This is the average, but every baby is different!
Your baby will go through different phases as they learn how to lift their heads up on their own. Continue reading to learn more about each phase.
Phase One: Head Lifts During Tummy Time
When your baby is a newborn, they won’t have any control of their head and neck. As they get a little older, you may start to notice them bobbing their heads. You may notice this jerking movement the most during tummy time when they are lying on their tummy!
If you begin to see these quick head lifts, it does not mean that they quite have full control of their neck, but it does mean that they are well on their way! You want your baby to lift their head to start building those muscles, so tummy time is important for every baby to get a workout in. After all, how can they learn how to crawl or walk if they can’t hold their head up on their own?
Phase Two: Lifting Head and Chest
As your baby grows and becomes stronger through regular tummy time, you may notice that they can not only reliably lift their head up but are also lifting their chest with them. They are getting older with slightly larger attention spans and a little bit more strength to shift around to experience the world around them. This is the time that they tend to take more interest in toys scattered near them on the floor.
Your baby will most likely use their arms to push themselves off the floor to look up and soak in their surroundings. While the head control is much better than it was as a newborn, you can expect your baby to only do this for short bursts of time! Before you know it, they’ll be using those new muscles to crawl all around the living room!
Phase Three: Full Head Control
Once your baby reaches six months old, they will most likely have the ability to hold their head up on their own. If your baby is unable to do this or could use a little practice, consider some of these exercises:
Sit your baby upright. You can do this by holding onto them or getting help from a nursing pillow. Using a nursing pillow will help your baby stay supported if they begin to wobble around.
Put them in a high chair. Alternatively to sitting with a nursing pillow, a high chair ensures that they are strapped in and safe from falling over. It has all the benefits of sitting up but with the added safety measures.
Baby wear. If your baby (and you) are comfortable with it, you can always wear your baby in a sling or carrier! This will have them in an upright position, so not only will they practice using their neck muscles, but they can look around too while you’re doing errands or chores!
Lay your baby on their back. If you place your baby on their back on an activity mat or a blanket and hold toys above their head, your baby will be intrigued by what they see and want to reach out to touch them. This will cause them to arch their back and work their neck muscles!
How Long to Support Your Baby’s Neck For
For the first few months of your baby’s life, it’s important to keep your baby’s head and neck supported. At first, they’re like a fish out of water and are very floppy! This includes their neck, as they will have no control over it at first.
As they get a little older and start working their muscles through play and exploration, they will start to gain the muscle necessary to hold their head up on their own. By the time your baby is four months, they should have the capability to hold their head up almost entirely on their own (but expect some bobbing still). This will give them, and you, some newfound and much-appreciated independence!
Until this happens, you will need to support their head while carrying them and ensure you are laying them down, starting at their head and ending at their toes. One day you’ll be able to flop your little one on the bed and receive hysterical giggles, but until then, your baby will need all of your support!
Keep Track of Your Baby’s Neck Control with Baby Connect
Learning to hold their head up on their own is one of the big first milestones your baby will have. After all, this is a building block to eventually start to walk! You will want to monitor your baby to be sure they are beginning to hold their head up on their own.
The Baby Connect app was designed with your baby’s needs in mind! You can track all of their important milestones, such as holding their head up, rolling over, and even taking their first steps! This app is a convenient place to store all of your baby’s important information so you’ll never lose it again.
