Tummy time equals difficult time!

[blue22]

My DD is 7 weeks old. I've been doing 'tummy time' for the last 3 weeks, but she absolutely hates it. We've never lasted more than about 30 seconds. How long should I be doing it for? I've tried lying next to her, but it doesn't make a difference. I want to help her develop, but don't like making her do something she hates? Any advice welcome!

[JamesAndTheGiantBanana]

No need to do it if she hates it, tbh. But what we did was buy a playmat with different black and white patterns etc, and ds liked staring at that. Also if you have a safe mirror (or a small hand mirror that she couldn't hurt herself on) she might like looking at herself whilst on her tummy.

[Indith]

if she hates it don't do it she won't break/die/get developmentally stunted if you don't put her on her tummy, she will figure things out all by herself and before you know it she will be rolling around and getting into mischief (or not actually, some babies just don't bother with much but they turn out ok too)

[ramblingmum]

Have you tried lying on your back with her on your chest, my dd found this better. They often seen not to like it particularly until they can lift their head up. Dont worry 7 weeks is still very young.

[Elk]

I never did tummy time with my 2, even very acitve dd2 hated it. Life if too short to make a baby do tummy time. They loved sitting on my lap or being carried around and looking over my shoulder. They both crawled before a year, and walked before 18 months (only just in the case of dd1) so I don't think they suffered developementally.

[harimosmummy]

My DS hated it. Absolutely hated it.

I can't see the point in perserving with something that is making you both upset.

Do try the tummy time on your chest / tummy - DS could cope with that a little better.

I don't think the lack of tummy time has affected him though!!

[GhoulsAreLoud]

DD hated it too. SHe was ok for a little while lying on her front on me but would still never tolerate it for long.

She got to 9 months and still wouldn't do it, wouldn't roll, wouldn't crawl, wouldn't put her arms out to catch herself if she fell forwards.

We had to do tons and tons of tummy time with her then, which I could only get her to do by putting snacks on the ground in front of her so she would be distracted while doing it.

Wish I'd persevered with it when she was smaller rather than assuming she'd sort it out by herself. We had a horrible time between 8 and 11 months before she learned to crawl when she basically screamed constantly through frustration.

So my advice would be to persevere with it, but don't force it. You have to find a way to make it tolerable - they sometimes enjoy looking down into a mirror, have you tried that.

[mrsmusic]

My dd is 12 weeks and doesn't it - like yours, managed about 30 seconds when we started doing it about 6 weeks and HATED it. My HV said that that is better than nothing, so we persevered and she can manage a couple of minutes now, although I think that this is largely due to the fact that she's loads better at holding her head than she was.

[DianaDavrosandthesupremedaleks]

DD hated it too. She would cry and cry until she was sick

In the end we stopped trying.

As a result DD didn't learn to roll until quite late (can't remember when but between 6-12 months) BUT she could sit alone at 5 months. She never crawled BUT she shuffled around on her bum instead and then walked at 12 months.

She is fine, no harm done

[seeker]

Why do you have to do this?

The urge to develop is very strong in babies - that's what they are programmed to do. As my wise old mother says - all babies should come with a sticker on their forehead saying "This grows up automatically". You don't have to do anything to help her develop - she will do it all on her own!

[rattling]

I have six month old twin boys. One hates tummy time so we don't bother. One quite enjoys it (for short periods, happiest doing it on my chest) so has a go at it a couple of times most days. Both boys are close to rolling over and started to sit up at pretty much the same time. Not much you can do to stop them or speed them growing up.

[jabberwocky]

Have you tried propping her up on a Boppie pillow?

Ds1 hated it too. Can't really remember about ds2

[TeenyTinyToria]

Both my dcs hate/d tummy time. They both got frustrated because they couldn't move anywhere, but once ds was old enough to roll over from his back and crawl, he was fine. I do find that the propping on a pillow thing works quite well for dd though.

[amandaeveille]

my little 1 hated it till about 3months i just kept trying every few days if he didnt like it i just rolled him over on his back. then one day he loved it. GOOD LUCK

[IsItMeOr]

HVs seem to think this is important, and if your dc is a late walker/crawler the physio will blame you not having done enough tummy time with them. BUT all dcs do things at different times, and some will crawl/walk later than others. So I think seeker's mum is right, and it is quite possibly the case that the ones who hate tummy time and go on to walk/crawl a bit later were always going to walk/crawl later whatever you did.

Keep trying every so often, but can't see it is worth making you all miserable over. My ds loved it, then hated it for the longest time, is just beginning to tolerate it now (8mo), but much prefers to be standing. Who knows if this is good for him, but so long as he is happy enough I really try to just leave him to it.

seeker maybe the mws should be issued with those labels to stick on. Might do some good!

[GhoulsAreLoud]

Yep, I kept thinking about the "this grows up automatically" thing I'd seen mentioned on here when I didn't bother with tummy time.

I regretted listening to it though, I really did.

It was actually quite easy to make tummy time tolerable once I put a bit of effort and thinking into it.

[humpydumpy]

My HV suggested using one of those giant exercise balls for tummy time. That way you can get down to eye level with them and make it fun rolling it a little. I'm about to give it a try when DS 10 weeks wakes from his nap. Wish me luck.

[saintmaybe]

But why on earth does it matter if they do things later? Genuinely confused.

[GhoulsAreLoud]

Is that directed at me saintmaybe?

I've already said so, here:

We had a horrible time between 8 and 11 months before she learned to crawl when she basically screamed constantly through frustration.

There are numerous threads from me (think I had a different name then) when I was tearing my hair out because my DD was so frustrated she couldn't be left alone to do anything by herself. I had to spend all of her waking hours on the floor with passing her things she couldn't reach, banging her things to snap her out of her horrible mood, or just listening to her scream and scream through frustration.

It was horrible, and I regretted not persevering with tummy time earlier on. Sorry if that confuses you.

We had a horrible, horrible time when DD was at

[StephHaydock]

To add a different perspective - I didn't even think about 'tummy time' with my second child until she was about 5 months old. She was a sleepy, cosy little baby and cried if she was put down.

She doesn't seem to have suffered much. She learned to crawl about a month from her fist time on her tummy (at 6/7 months)- is a fast crawling, cruising and almost walking 11 mth old now.

You can overthink these things.

[GhoulsAreLoud]

Yep my DD crawled within a month of her first tummy time too steph, except she was 10 months when we first did it, so she crawled at 11 months.

[saintmaybe]

No, not particularly, GAL. My eldest is 12 now and I didn't especially have much to do with hvs, etc when the others were little. Don't remember especially being advised to put him on his tummy in case his gross motor skills development was delayed, but didn't know if thinking had changed since then.

I'll try to keep up..

[seeker]

Does anyone think that the cause and effect may have got swapped round a bit? Maybe babies who don't mind being on their tummies when they are little have the sort of muscle tone in the gropus of muscles that will make them crawl slightly earlier, and the ones who don't like it, don't, if you see what I mean. So if your baby doesn't like being on their tummy and you don't push it and you feel they are a late crawler, it might be nothing to do with the fact that they didn't spend much time on their tummies, and everything to do with the sort of baby they are. And vice versa.

[moosemama]

Dd absolutely hated tummy time, she would tolerate about a minute if she had her chest propped on a feeding cushion, but she was not happy at all, so I didn't push it.

She sat and rolled over between 4 and 5 months. She is now nearly 10 months and has chosen to bum-shuffle instead of crawl. She has tried crawling and can do it when she wants to, but decided it wasn't for her, seemingly because she can't carry things and crawl at the same time. (I also think its because she is nosey inquisitive and likes to see what's going on around her all the time in case she misses something.)

Ds1 didn't have tummy time at all, because I had never heard of it - he was walking at 10 months, but never crawled (I put that down to us having hard floors at the time.)

Ds2 didn't have much tummy time because he didn't like it, he opted for a very brief spell of crawling at about 9/10 months then started walking at 11 months.

If you are really worried about it and want to encourage your dd to like it, I second (or is it third ) the advice to do it with her on your chest.

[AitchTwoToTangOh]

dd1 hated it until i went to a cranio sacral chiropractor (about something else) with her and immediately after the appointment she was absolutely fine with it. babies get wee injuries, necks popped a little out of place etc, sometimes after difficult births, sometimes just an adult banging their heads off a doorway (), it's very common.

dd2, cs birth, was always fine with tummy time. chiropractors etc say its essential because it's setting up all sorts of neurological and physical stuff, but who knows?

[IsItMeOr]

seeker you have said what I was trying to say, only much better .