Is tummy time essential?

[Mybellyisaneasteregg]

With ds I did tummy time every day from birth a few times a day, gradually building up in duration. He rolled early and then went on to crawl and walk early.

Am pregnant with my second baby and I'm wondering how essential tummy time is. I don't want an early crawler/walker (didn't realise the implications of this with ds obviously) so I was wondering if there are others out there who didn't do any at all or who only did it occasionally it or when it occurred naturally.

[Nocomet]

15 minutes!
DD1 wouldn't do 15 seconds, before you needed ear defenders.

And she wouldn't tolerate being put in a sling either.

[passwordchange]

My DD (10 months) hated tummy time. I did it a few times, then gave up. Didn't stop her sitting at 6 months, crawling at 9 months and crusing at 10 months.

[Charlotteamanda1]

Tummy time is essential. It helps with their physical and sensory development.

[deepinthewoods]

"Tummy time is essential. It helps with their physical and sensory development."

But it depends on what babies are doing the rest of the time. Tummy time is not "essential" for all babies.
For babies spending most oftheir time lying flat on their backs in a moses basket or pram then tummy time is probably a great idea.
For babies that co- sleep ( which involves a great deal of movement and posture change including probably front lying) and are carried in a sling I don't think tummy time is that important.

[BathroomDrama]

IMO it is very important. The thing is that the advantages of it are not easily seen, so people don't see how it's helping.

There are lots of things that being on their tummies help them to develop - one of them is bladder control & another is eyesight. Unfortunately I can't remember the other things as they weren't the main focus of why we were doing it (the baby had a lump on his neck), we learnt so much along the way, but sadly my memory is crap for the 'detail' - but I do know it's important.

Being in a sling isn't the same as being on a firm surface which they can push against - so whilst it may help with head control etc, it doesn't replace tummy time.

Of course lots of people will say 'I didn't do it with my baby and s/he is fine', they can't know that - they can't see inside their baby or into the future, or know if their child could have had a stronger core, better eyesight or whatever.

There are lots of techniques to help a baby enjoy tummy time if you are interested?

[Nocomet]

Eyesight and bladder control, I'd love to see a reference to proper peer reviewed evidence for those

[deepinthewoods]

But "tummy time" is a modern invention, created for western approaches to having a baby lie flat on their backs in a cot all night.
It's not essential for babies who spend much of their waking and night times being mobile.
It's purely a response to the advice to place babies flat on their backs for most of a 24 hour period.

[ZingWatermelon]

deep

I couldn't agree more. It's "created" to make up for "lost hours" a child would have spent on their tummies even just a few decades ago.

because they were put in their cots to sleep on their fronts it was on only a natural extension to put them on their tummies when awake.

and that only applied if they weren't otherwise held/strapped on front or back of mother.

swings & roundabouts.

[vichill]

dd absolutely hated it but crawled at 7.5 months. I didn't feel it was so important that I needed to scare her every day.

[colds2012]

My son (three months tomorrow) HATES tummy time, and yes, the doctors scared me too about a month ago because he wasn't holding his head up. Whenever I put him down, however, he would scream murder and automatically want to nurse and wouldn't be comforted until then (So frustrating!).

But there is an article I stumbled upon last week and it has made all of the difference in the weekend! Look up "Seven Tips for Making Tummy Time a Little Less...um... Miserable let." It is at mamaot.com. It is a literally a list to help your baby progress/transition into enjoying tummy time.

Since starting this, I have found that my son is curious and probably just wants to see everything! I have also learned that he already has a lot of those muscles, but likes to be butt naked (really??) or on a blanket rather than our carpet to even try full blown tummy time. We are on steps four and five and he LOVES the exercise ball (so curios!) And when I try him on his actual tummy, he if starting to last even a little longer and starting to try to push himself up. Oh, and he rolled himself onto his tummy for the first time yesterday (then cried) after only doing this for a week. Hope this helps!!

[colds2012]

Sorry... Typing from my phone....

It had made all the difference in the world and the site is "Seven Tips for Making Tummy Time A Little Less....um....Miserable" :)
Just to add, my ds is loving being carried around on his stomach (step 4) and on an exercise ball I got from Walmart during pregnancy ($8!), I can adjust the angle he is at as we progress to being parallel with the floor.

[naty1]

P

[naty1]

Stupid phone. I was only trying to read

[PenguinsHatchedAnEgg]

It is actually, as far as I know, a bit of a myth that babies 'used to always sleep on their fronts' as people often say. Up to about the 1950s it was advised to put babies to sleep on their back or side. The advice seems to have changed fairly suddenly. My grandmother was advised to put babies to sleep on their back, but by the time I was born (am in my mid 30s) my mother was told to put me on my front.

The change seems to have come about for a number of reasons, mostly to do with babies sleeping more deeply on their front and also worries about choking if they were to vomit. Other reasons included strengthening the neck and spine. One source I found says that Dr Spock's books changed from advocating back to front between 1955 and 1956 editions and that by 1958 he was strongly pushing front sleeping (though I don't have copies to check).

To me, personally, it has never made sense to say that babies were routinely and instinctively put to sleep on their fronts. As you lower a very young baby, you hold their neck, which makes it as least as natural to lay them on their back. Also, for most of human history, most babies co-slept. Which wouldn't allow for front sleeping.

So actually, the window of front sleeping as standard (as opposed to because some mothers found it suited their child) was pretty brief. About 40-50 years. Mind you, during that window my mother was berated for putting me on my back to sleep even though I screamed the house down every time she tried my front .

My babies have hated tummy time. With DD1 I diligently tried. With DD2 I hardly bothered. With DS (newborn) I will do the same unless he actively likes it. He's a baby, I've no urge to train his stamina at something he dislikes. They spend a lot of time in slings, being carried, etc. Both DD's were also sitting by 5 months and spent a lot of time sitting up. They were late crawlers, but walked bang on average (and judging by a video I found recently, at least DD1 was running very fast about three days later).