Imagine this situation: You and your baby go to the doctor for a hip checkup. In the best case, you hear that your baby’s hips are developing properly and, apart from usual baby-friendly care, they don’t need any special attention.
The doctor reminds you to give your baby’s legs as much freedom as possible, to avoid any movements that could cause the thighbone to slip out of the hip socket, and to carry or hold your baby with their legs in a frog position.
In a few weeks’ time, you visit a physiotherapist to assess your baby’s development. The child is now 3 months old, so it is the perfect time for such a visit.
The physiotherapist examines your baby, but when it’s time to put the baby on the tummy, you see that the specialist doesn’t quite like the fact that your baby’s knees are spread so wide.
The physiotherapist puts the baby’s knees together to straighten the legs, and you think: “What on earth??? We weren’t supposed to do that!!! Is this a joke!?”
However, before you decide to poke the physiotherapist’s eyes out, please get familiar with this post. 😊
WHAT ARE FROG LEGS?
In short, frog legs is a position in which the baby’s legs are flexed with the knees wide apart from each other.
If you could see how the elements of the hip joint are arranged when the baby assumes this position, you would notice that the thighbone is located centrally in the hip socket. And that is the main reason why the doctor mentioned this position to begin with.
As you probably know well, babies’ hip joints are delicate and unstable. The socket of the hip joint is not yet fully developed — it is still relatively shallow. In order for it to form properly, it needs the help of the thighbone to closely adhere to its interior.
So why did the physiotherapist frown when checking how the baby manages with slightly more straightened legs?
The answer is simple — while indeed, in the first weeks of life, the baby’s legs remain flexed when on the tummy, by the end of the 3rd month, they should already be relaxed and straightened (of course, I’m not talking about when the baby is sleeping, but when he or she is active).
WHY DO THE LEGS STRAIGHTEN?
If you want to find out, take this short test:
Lie on your stomach and prop up on your forearms. Keep your legs relaxed and place your elbows right under your shoulders (in a straight line). Lie in this position for a little while. Pretty great, right?
Now, try to bend your legs and spread your knees as wide as you can. Prop yourself on your forearms once again.
— Do you feel tension in your lower back?
— How long can you hold this position?
What if I told you now to… prop up on straight arms???
I don’t even want to try…
As you can see, the position of the legs is important when it comes to babies acquiring new skills.
While newborns keep their legs bent when on the tummy, at the end of the 3rd month of life, they should already be FREELY straightened.
When they straighten, the weight of the baby’s body shifts lower — towards the hips, and lying on the tummy becomes more and more comfortable. (See why lying on the tummy is so important).
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should force your baby to assume this position, but it’s worth knowing that after the 3rd month of life, the legs should naturally straighten. The knees should be positioned on the sides only slightly wider than the hips.
Otherwise, the child may have difficulties with lying on the tummy, propping up on forearms or straightened arms, as well as with… getting into higher positions.
WHAT ABOUT LYING ON THE BACK?
When it comes to the back position, the baby’s legs work in a general pattern of flexion, abduction, and external rotation.
When you look at a 3-month-old baby, their position resembles that of sitting, only while lying down.
In the following months, the legs are usually still very active, the child eagerly lifts them up, reaches for both of them at once or each of them separately. What’s more, the baby looks in their direction, reaches for them, and grabs objects with the feet. At the end of the 6th month of life, babies are able to put their toes in their mouth.
OK, BUT WHAT IF YOUR BABY’S LEGS DON’T COME TOGETHER ON THEIR OWN? WHAT CAN THIS MEAN?
With some children, indeed, the legs stay far from each other for a longer time. Such babies, after the 3rd month of life, while lying on their tummy, still spread their knees wide apart, and when lying on their back, they either rarely raise them up, or they do it by “throwing” the legs onto themselves, instead of actively lifting the hips.
Such behavior can happen in children with reduced postural tension, who choose the widening of the base of support as a compensation mechanism.
Children with reduced muscle tension may seem to be not very mobile, uninterested in new challenges, or easily discouraged, and looking at their activity, you might get the impression that the force of gravity acts on them more strongly than on any other person.
In most such cases, we see increased mobility within the joints — the ranges of motion are larger than average, and thus such children may have difficulties with keeping individual parts of the body in line (for example, knees and hips at the same distance from the body’s center) in the future. They may also have trouble getting and staying on all-fours or they can distort their feet and use a large base of support while moving into an upright position.
HOW TO HELP?
If you’ve noticed that your baby often spreads the legs wide to a frog position, and that helps him or her to improve their postural control, then you’re halfway there!
If the pediatrician decides that it requires a consultation with a physiotherapist or other specialist, they will tell you what to do.
A physiotherapist, examining the baby and observing their activity, will be able to prescribe an individual treatment plan or suggest some exercises to do at home.
AND WHAT ABOUT DAILY ACTIVITIES?
If you read my blog on a regular basis, I probably won’t surprise you. 😉 Baby-friendly care; providing the baby with opportunities to lie on many different surfaces; giving them a chance to reach the next stages of development on their own and to make an effort to acquire them; playtime activities that are appropriate to the age and capabilities of the baby, and at the same time, constitute a big challenge for the stomach muscles — all of that will work great here.
TO SUM UP:
- Frog legs help to centralize the thighbone in the hip socket, which has a positive effect on its development.
- It’s natural that a properly developing newborn, while lying on the tummy, places the knees wider than the hips, but at the end of the 3rd month of life, the legs should start to freely straighten.
- When lying on the back — flexion, abduction, and external rotation is the pattern in which the child operates. From around the 4th month of life, the child should eagerly raise the legs up, reach for the thighs, knees, shins, and feet.
- A prolonged frog leg position may make it difficult for the baby to assume a symmetrical raised position on the forearms of good quality and to move to higher positions.
- In some children, such a wide position of the legs may be associated with reduced postural tension and/or hypermobility within the joints. Such a situation should be consulted with a specialist.
Interesting fact — the position of the legs in newborns lying on the tummy is one way to estimate the level of basic postural tension with good accuracy. The more bent the knees are, the lower the tension is likely to be.
Exercising doesn’t have to be boring! 💪 You can make it really fun for your baby! 🥳 If you wonder how you can encourage your baby to freely straighten their legs, start to prop on forearms, or move to higher positions, check out the e-book about playtime activities with your child and find out that it’s really FUN AND SIMPLE. Developmental games are all about using the baby’s potential to reach the next stages of development 👶, but at the same time, it’s also about building a strong emotional bond between the little ones and their parents! 🤱🧑🍼❤️
Sources:
- Gogola, Anna; Matyja, Malgorzata (2011). “Edukacja Sensomotoryczna Niemowląt/Sensomotor Education of Infants” Katowice.
- Bly, Lois (1995). “Motor Skills Acquisition in the First Year:” Therapy Skill Builders.
