Picking up baby under armpits

sportsmomma

Ok, please tell me I'm not crazy. I was just chastised for picking DS up from under his armpits. This is how I almost always pick him up out of the cars eat, swing, to nurse, to burp etc. I have heard his shoulder pop a few times (not just during holding him but other times too) and pedi said its normal for their little joints to pop. Anyways - this is a normal way to pick up the baby so long as my fingers are supporting his neck right? Crazy how strangers have the ability to make me feel like an unfit mother! 

lageorgiapaperie

I have never heard this either, and that's how I usually pick DS up as well! I didn't do it when he was really little, but probably starting around 3 or 4 weeks.

MrsT2008

um, yeah, that's how I pick up DD most of the time.

uncharch7

that's how we almost always pick up DS

ssarahtops

I hate to say it, but it's actually better to pick our LOs up by their trunks (ribcage).  I've been working with infants and toddlers forever and over the years I've heard it mentioned several times that it's tough on their joints to pick them up by under their armpits or by their arms (something about their joints being looser and therefore easy to pop out of join).  Realistically, it probably doesn't make much of a difference, but in the child care world it's not your kid to break so we have to be extra careful. 

CamJack mom

When picking them up at this age, make sure if you are picking them up under the armpits, you grab close to the body, not by the arms completely. However, that seems stupid, I always pick my children up under the armpits. I have never heard them pop though.

uncharch7

CamJack mom:

When picking them up at this age, make sure if you are picking them up under the armpits, you grab close to the body, not by the arms completely. However, that seems stupid, I always pick my children up under the armpits. I have never heard them pop though.

Come to think of it, we do grab around the rib cage, the part between our thumb and index finger just goes under his arm pits. I had to think way too hard about that.

MrsT2008

uncharch7:

CamJack mom:

When picking them up at this age, make sure if you are picking them up under the armpits, you grab close to the body, not by the arms completely. However, that seems stupid, I always pick my children up under the armpits. I have never heard them pop though.

Come to think of it, we do grab around the rib cage, the part between our thumb and index finger just goes under his arm pits. I had to think way too hard about that.

this is what we do too.

sportsmomma

MrsT2008:

uncharch7:

CamJack mom:

When picking them up at this age, make sure if you are picking them up under the armpits, you grab close to the body, not by the arms completely. However, that seems stupid, I always pick my children up under the armpits. I have never heard them pop though.

Come to think of it, we do grab around the rib cage, the part between our thumb and index finger just goes under his arm pits. I had to think way too hard about that.

this is what we do too.

Yeah same here. The lady (who I'm sure was well meaning but still...) said its a shoulder dislocation risk and to pick them up with one hand behind head/neck and the other under the bum. If he's lying flat that's how unpick him up but seems virtually impossible to do when getting out of a cars eat or something.  

PecanSam

My pedi said the cracking noise we hear is the hormone relaxin that we had while we were pregnant and it will eventually work out of their system. I think that person was confused and whoever told her that , meant by the arms only. 

CamJack mom

BlueCards:

MrsT2008:

uncharch7:

CamJack mom:

When picking them up at this age, make sure if you are picking them up under the armpits, you grab close to the body, not by the arms completely. However, that seems stupid, I always pick my children up under the armpits. I have never heard them pop though.

Come to think of it, we do grab around the rib cage, the part between our thumb and index finger just goes under his arm pits. I had to think way too hard about that.

this is what we do too.

Yeah same here. The lady (who I'm sure was well meaning but still...) said its a shoulder dislocation risk and to pick them up with one hand behind head/neck and the other under the bum. If he's lying flat that's how unpick him up but seems virtually impossible to do when getting out of a cars eat or something.  

yea, by the head and bum is best, but I couldn't pick my kid up out of the carseat like that. Sounds like you are doing exactly what I do. I've heard older people say not to pick them up by the armpit though. 

NoodleM

When I was a baby my wrist was dislocated by someone picking me up by my hands, my mom actually got investigated by child services over it.

But if you are holding the trunk of their body with your the space between your thumb and index finger in the armpit, I didn't think that pulled on anything. 

LizOller

Our LO is a fighter (he twists and wiggles) and if we picked him up by his neck and bum he would flip right out of our hands fast. Seriously I already have him ripping my nursing cover off me, I don't think it is on purpose he just likes to move. 

COmommy

That's how I always pick her up!  If you were picking up baby BY his arms, that would be a risk of dislocating his shoulder, but not picking up by the armpits.