Babies are cute, adorable and can exhibit some very curious behaviors sometimes, like constantly needing and wanting to hold something, and this behavior may have you making you confused.
This article looks into why your baby always needs to hold something
Why does my baby always need to hold something?
There are a few odd behaviors that all babies seem to do, figuring out why your baby exhibits these odd behaviors will help you understand your child more
Here is why your child seems to always need to be holding something:
Reflex:
Babies will automatically hold things placed in their palms, this reflex exists in our primate ancestors as well. Primates have a reflex that allows them to hold anything placed in their hand, like a tree branch.
Babies have this reflex but can control it, it’s not automatic like in primates, but babies still like to grab when exploring their surroundings.
Anything that is placed in your baby’s hand triggers their fingers to contract and hold.
What to do:
You don’t have to be concerned when you see this happening with your baby, this is typical baby behavior and is done by most babies at some point.
You don’t have to worry if your baby seems to be holding things earlier or later on than other babies, babies develop at different speeds and at their own pace, just let your baby grow as they need to
Exploring:
In addition to gripping as a reflex, your baby will grip things and hold onto things because they are exploring their environment.
This gripping helps them understand texture, shapes, and the concept of cause and effect, helps strengthen their hand muscles, helps with coordination, and overall helps them develop their fine motor skills.
The more your baby grabs and holds the more they learn about their environment. They know that their senses reach past seeing, feeling helps them learn about their environment so they will hold things to understand more about their environment
What to do:
This is normal and natural, the only thing that you’d need to keep in mind is safety. Make sure that what your child is holding is safe, and that the child doesn’t have something that they can swallow or put in their nose or ear.
Ownership:
Another reason why your child may be holding things may be because the child thinks that they own it. Ownership starts developing in young children, even babies
When babies hold things they think that they are holding onto something personal even if it is just a toy, fruit, rattle, brush
Your child will be quite attached to this object and may even hold onto this object when they are asleep
What to do:
You can say phrases like “those are mommy shoes” to help your baby concentrate on what they are doing and help them learn different words
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