NanaKim

When I was a parent in the 90s, the phrase “tummy time” wasn’t one that came up much. In playing with my babies on the floor. Tummy time happened because I was consciously varying the experiences to keep my babies interested. I wasn’t focused on the importance of tummy time as parents are told to be today. From my childhood, I remember my siblings being on the floor on their tummies as babies and I knew that it was good for muscle development, but again, it wasn’t a major focus of parenting at that time either.

Tummy time is important enough now to receive its own category in the What to Expect Baby Tracker menu alongside feeding, sleeping and diaper changes. There has been a great deal of research in recent decades about muscle development and how stages of infant growth prepare for future skills, such as crawling strengthening arms, which will later support the fine motor skill development in the hands. Tummy time has so many benefits for strengthening the baby, and is good preparation for crawling. However, it doesn’t always come easily.

Professionals tell us that tummy time should happen from birth on a daily basis several times a day. At first, it lasts a very short time but gradually builds up to five minutes, three times a day. Many of us, parents and grandparents, offer tummy time in different ways: on the floor, resting on our chest or legs, propped up on a rolled blanket or horseshoe pillow. There are lots of ways to get it done. However, babies don’t always like the feeling and it can come with a lot of tears.

My granddaughter did not enjoy tummy time at all. Once we had understood that she had acid reflux, that made everything more understandable. Her tummy was already uncomfortable from digestion issues and she didn’t want to put pressure on the sorest part of her body. Nevertheless, there is a lot of pressure from pediatricians to find ways to get tummy time done, because it is so very foundational to gross motor development. We were all recording our baby’s tummy time on the What to Expect App and it wasn’t adding up to enough.

My daughter and her husband called in a Pediatric Physical Therapist to help. The key was to prepare the whole body for tummy time with a warm up routine of stretching muscles. My granddaughter enjoyed this part of the process very much. We pulled her arms straight above her head and crossed them in front of her body all while she was on her back. We pulled her knee across her body, similar to a yoga twist on the floor, and repeated stretches on both sides. Following these steps we were then able to put her on her tummy, sometimes with a pillow under her arms and then we attempted to entertain her for up to three minutes at a time.

My granddaughter’s tummy time always ended in tears, but she was able to tolerate longer periods of tummy time with the physical therapy protocol. I did my part along with the parents. It was always clear that the warmups were welcome but tummy time was not as far as my granddaughter was concerned. We all want to provide the best support we can for our baby and it is getting better.

What has been your experience of tummy time? Has it been fun for the baby or a miserable experience all round? I would be interested to compare our stories.