Tummy time is important for newborns' development, helping to build muscles and prevent flat spots on the head. It should be started as soon as you get home and gradually increased. Use high contrast colored toys, engage with your baby, and consider using props like a nursing Pillow or exercise ball. Skin-to-skin contact and reclining positions can also make tummy time easier.
- 💪 Tummy time is crucial for newborns' development, strengthening their shoulder, neck, and back muscles. It also helps prevent positional plagiocephaly, which can occur from spending too much time on their back.
- 📅 Tummy time can be started as soon as you bring your newborn home, as long as they are full term and have no health concerns. Starting with short sessions multiple times a day and gradually increasing duration is recommended.
- 🌈 High contrast colored toys, such as black and white or red, are more stimulating for newborns' vision. Engaging with your baby and using your face as a prop can also grab their attention.
- 🛏️ Props like a nursing Pillow or exercise ball can provide additional support and stimulation during tummy time. The exercise ball can offer gentle stimuli to the sensory system, promoting better motor development.
- 👨👩👧👦 Skin-to-skin contact and reclining positions, such as lying back against a headboard, can make tummy time more comfortable for both you and your baby. This allows for easier engagement and a good workout for your baby's muscles.
- 🔄 Gradually increasing the recline angle as your baby's tolerance for skin-to-skin tummy time improves can provide a similar workout to floor tummy time. This allows your baby to continue developing their muscles without fighting against gravity.
I'm going to go over everything you need to know to do tummy time with your newborn . so first let's start with the very Basics what is tummy time and why is it so important ?
Tummy time is just that it refers to placing your infant on his or her stomach while they are awake and alert and also while they are being supervised by you or another caregiver. Tummy time is so important for your child's development. It really helps to build strong shoulder neck and back muscles and it also helps to prevent what's known as positional plagiocephaly which refers to flat spots on your infants .
This can occur when a baby spends too much time on their back additionally if babies spend too much time on their back it can really delay motor development and increase the amount of time it may take for your child to learn to roll over sit up crawl or even walk .
So clearly tummy time is really really important to incorporate with your infant at home one of the most popular questions when it comes to tummy time is when can I begin tummy time ? and how long should I do it with a newborn ?
so if your child was born full term and has no health concerns you can start Tummy Time as soon as you get home most newborn infants will tolerate tummy time for one to three minutes at a time generally you want to start with doing tummy time two to three times a day but of course feel free to take breaks as your child needs it the goal of course is to increase their endurance for tummy time and to slowly increase the amount of time that they're spending on their stomach as they continue to grow now as I'm sure a lot of you you guys are aware some babies tolerate tummy time better than other babies .
I would love to share with you guys some tips to facilitate successful tummy time with your newborn at home.
The two main tips I want to share with you guys today is props and positioning when it comes to props you're going to want to use high contrast colored toys such as black and white yellow or red now you might be wondering why high contrast colored toys your infant is at the very early stage of their Vision development and right now everything is quite blurry.
They have a hard time distinguishing Shades such as red and orange versus blue or green and they're going to gravitate towards high contrast colors like black and white stripes or checkered patterns and red and yellow those busier high contrast colors are more likely to grab your infant's attention speaking of getting your infants attention the most valuable prop you have is free as it is yourself there's nothing that your infant is going to be drawing on more to than your face so remember to get down at their level and engage with them when doing tummy time and another tip to remember is that an infant can only focus their Vision 8 to 12 inches from their face which is just close enough to make out who's holding them another prop you might consider is what's called a nursing Pillow it's a crescent-shaped pillow and it offers just a little bit more Comfort or support to your child when doing tummy time.
if you don't have a nursing Pillow no worries you can easily recreate one using a soft towel or blanket by rolling it up and folding it over so it's Crescent shaped the last prop . It offers gentle stimuli to your infant sensory system specifically it offers stimuli to their vestibular and their proprioceptive sensory systems our vestibular systems process information such as motion equilibrium and spatial orientation while our proprioceptive system is responsible for processing information such as muscle length muscle tension and our body position in space for more information on our proprioceptive system.
You can do some back and forth rocking very gently or you can even incorporate a slight bounce on their back into the ball both of these techniques are a gentle way to wake up your baby's sensory system but it also can have a very calming effect for them and it made tummy time more fun and it also helped to increase the amount of time he was interested in doing Tummy Time finally we'll touch on positions so as I mentioned previously your face is the most motivating thing
for your child to look at and your infant also loves being skin to skin as it helps to calm and regulate them so if your child's having a difficult time completing tummy time on the floor you can try sitting down on a couch or lying back against a headboard and placing your child's skin to skin on your chest at a slight recline now being at a recline makes Tummy Time slightly easier on your child as they're not having to fight gravity as much but it still allows them to get a really good workout.
baby, tummy time
