Tummy time is one of the first and most important activities for your baby to do. So, what exactly is tummy time and why is it so important?
Tummy time is considered the period of time during the day when your baby is on their stomach while they are awake and supervised. It is important for infants for a number of reasons and helps promote motor, sensory, and visual development as well as preventing positional conditions.
Here are some of the reasons tummy time is important for your infant:
Positional Conditions
- Positional torticollis (stiffening of neck muscles) and positional plagiocephaly (flattening of the skull) can be prevented by making sure your baby is getting enough tummy time each day.
Motor
- Tummy time strengthens your baby’s neck, back, and core muscles which helps build a foundation for your baby to meet milestones such as rolling, sitting, crawling. It also helps build the coordination required for gross and fine motor skills.
Sensory
- Tummy time allows your baby to explore feeling different textures such as blankets and carpet which can help with the sense of touch. It also helps with body awareness as your baby moves and shifts their weight back and forth on their belly. As they move and are in different positions, it also helps their vestibular system, which helps with movement and balance.
Visual
- When babies are on their belly, they are able to look down at their hands and see how they move and what they can do. This helps develop eye and hand coordination. Being on their tummy also allows them to see the world from a different perspective and helps their eyes learn how to focus on objects both near and far.
Stretching
- When babies are in the womb, they spend a long time in the fetal position, which can cause tightness in the muscles on the front of the body. Tummy time allows these muscles to be stretched.
Now that we know why tummy time is important, you may be wondering how much tummy time should your baby be getting each day.
Typically, it is recommended that babies get 90 total minutes of tummy time throughout the day by the time they are 4 months old and should start working towards this amount of time as a newborn. This can be made up of increments of 5-10 minutes of time throughout the day and doesn’t all have to be completed at once.
Starting tummy time as a newborn doesn’t mean you have to place your baby on the floor as a newborn. Here is a nice progression of positions to start with your newborn to work up towards tummy time on the floor:
On Your Chest
- Lay your child on their tummy on top of your own chest. To start, try doing this when you are reclined at an angle and not lying flat on your back. Being at an angle will decrease the amount of strength/effort your baby needs to lift their head. As your baby becomes stronger and more comfortable being on their belly, you can work towards laying flat on your back. By doing tummy time on your chest, it allows your baby to be comforted knowing that they are being held.
In Your Arms
- An easy way to get in some tummy time that you may not think of is by carrying your baby on their belly or side while you are walking around. The easiest way to make this position work is to have one forearm between your baby legs and the other arm between the shoulder and ear that is closest to your body. To start off, you can hold your baby with that arm positioning and once you and baby are comfortable you can roll them more onto their belly rather than their side.
On a Therapy Ball
- This is a great method because you can control how easy or difficult it is for your baby, much like how you can adjust the incline of your body when you have your baby on your chest for tummy time. A greater incline on the ball will make it easier for your baby, and being more flat will make it more difficult. While you have your baby on the therapy ball you can also rock them forward and backward slowly when they become comfortable.
On Your Lap
- This can be done in a variety of ways and positions. You can have your baby lay on their belly across your legs while you are sitting on the floor, the couch, or on a chair. One great way to make this work and help your baby prepare for tummy time on the floor is to sit on the floor and have your legs out straight in front of you. Then you can place your baby across your lap with his arms out in front of him with his hands on the floor.
On a Boppy, Pillow, or Towel Roll
- Lay your baby on their tummy with their chest on a Boppy pillow, rolled up towel, or normal pillow with their arms off the edge and in contact with the floor. This is similar to having them across your lap and will help prepare them for tummy time on the floor!
On the Floor Independently
- Once your baby is comfortable with being on his belly in different positions, they can graduate to completing tummy time on the floor, with supervision of course!