Grasping at Everything

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

15 Jun 2006 04:30 AM

When it comes to marking down milestones in your baby book - one that is often overlooked is one that has to do with grasping. Remember the first time you felt your little one's fingers close around just one of yours? It is a treasured moment for mothers, fathers, grandmothers and relatives. In the first few weeks, until about the age of 2 months, grasping is simply a reflex action that begins to fade away.

The constant clenching relaxes into open hands that begin to explore the world around them. They begin by grasping at their blankets, at hair and even at their own bottle - but they are trying to exercise their own motor control. Your hair becomes a favorite target because it is often brought close to them while you are cradling your child.

Initially, their grasping is pretty weak (but for those of us who have felt those tugs at the hair - that short grasp is more than enough to hurt at times). The controlled grasping continues, from those first few exploratory tugs to maneuvering that they begin to do by the age of 4 months.

At 4 months, babies can semi-hold a small toy while laying on their back or cradled in your arms. They don't hold it up and look at it so much as move it around with their hands. They are beginning to track more with their eyes and they love the tactile sensations they encounter with their hands.

Somewhere between 4 and 6 months, their grasping becomes reaching and they will twist to reach out and pull things to themselves. It's also during this period that they begin grasping at their own bottles. This is a mixed blessing, because while some babies figure it out quickly to hold a bottle, many grasp it out of their own mouths and fling it - generating squalls, squeals and more.

After 6 months, babies get more involved in their environment - twisting, rolling and reaching out for objects that they couldn't get to before. So if they are doing this all the way through the first few months of their lives from reflex to controlled action - when is the milestone? Roughly around the age of 9 months, when they begin to use their thumb and forefinger in what is called the pincer grasp is the milestone we are looking for. This is the time when having opposable thumbs becomes a factor.

What I remember most about this is that my daughter loved to grasp the end of her bottle and fling it at this age. She began studying throwing and flinging about the time she mastered grasping.

Did you note when your baby achieved this milestone?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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