What is tummy time?
Tummy time is when your baby spends time laying on their stomach while supervised. Your baby should never be left on their tummy unsupervised.
Why is tummy time so important?
Tummy time play has become an important part of development in recent years; this is because parents and professionals are now strongly advised to sleep babies on their backs for safety reasons. The Lullaby Trust provide further information on safer sleeping.
This means that for your baby to develop their core skills and cross lateral brain connections, you need to compensate for them sleeping on their backs by providing and encouraging tummy time play.
Without tummy time, your baby may miss out the crawling stage altogether which could impact on their learning and development – and their toilet training later on!
Tummy time play during waking hours is important to the motor development of your baby as it allows them to gain head and body control. Motor control develops in a ‘cephalocaudal’ fashion, which means your baby first gains control of their head, then their shoulders, then their abdomen and so on down to their feet.
Developing head control allows your baby to visually explore everything around them, and this strength will prepare them for crawling as well as getting them ready to push up, roll over and eventually to stand.
As well as gross motor skills, tummy time play encourages your baby’s fine motor skills. For example, as they grasp at your clothing while you hold them across your legs or on your chest, or they grasp at a blanket they are lying on as they balance on one arm to reach for toys.
Having tummy time also helps the development of your baby’s skull. With babies spending more time on their backs, paediatricians have noted an increase in flatheads or misshapen heads.
Babies skulls are still quite soft and constantly lying on their backs without changing the head position can cause a flattened effect on the back of their heads.
Top tips:
- Place your baby on a firm, flat surface on their tummy with their arms forward: a rug on the floor is best, as a soft or padded surface makes it too hard for them to move
- While you are lying on your back or reclining, lay your baby on your tummy: this way, they will be encouraged to lift up and look at your face (you can try gently rocking them from side to side as you hold them)
- Lay down on the floor facing your baby: they will be able to watch your mouth move as you talk or sing to them
- Sit on the floor and hold your baby on their tummy across your lap or thighs: gently stroke them rhythmically down their back, making circular motions between their shoulder blades
- Lay your baby on different textures: you could use a ‘feelie blanket’ made of squares contrasting fabrics such as soft velvet, corduroy, coarse hessian, shiny satin, woollen, fleecy, fluffy fabrics (curtain shops often sell sample squares of suitable fabrics in inexpensive bundles)
- Place a toy within your baby’s reach: perhaps a coloured ball or a plastic bottle with bells/marbles/tinsel in it (make sure the lid is tightly secured and supervise)
- Swish your baby through the air to music: support them with your arms and hands under their body and chest
- Lay your baby across a beach ball/exercise ball/rolled up sleeping-bag, and rock them gently to and fro and sideways: this will also stimulate their vestibular (balance) system and help them get used to being in different positions
- If your baby can’t support their weight on their forearms: support them on a rolled-up towel or tummy pillow placed beneath the arms, with their arms forward so they can practise mini push-ups or play with a toy – when they can get up on their forearms independently, remove the pillow and let them work on their motor skills without it
- Your baby may find tummy time uncomfortable so you can offer them a distraction: for example laying face to face with them, holding a rattle/squeaky toy, waving a colourful scarf, placing a mirror/pop up book in front of them to look at and reach for
- Persevere with very short but frequent periods of tummy play: moving on their tummy is hard work for your baby, they will tire quickly and as this is something new, they might not like it for more than a few seconds – allowing them to gradually build up the strength and learn to move more efficiently
