Did you do tummy time?

[October89]

My dd is 3 months old. I'll be honest and say I've done very little tummy time with her as she hates it, she also has reflux so being on her tummy makes her throw up. I'm feeling a lot of mum guilt since it gets pumped into you as a mum that tummy time is so so important so I feel like I'm depriving my baby by not doing it much.

How much do you do it? Any tips on how to get baby to enjoy it? I have toys in front of her and I prop her up on a breast feeding pillow.

No, my baby had severe reflux- it would've been down right cruel to do tummy time.

I think tummy time is mostly bollocks anyway tbh, there's no need really.

Did it with first who hated it and didn’t bother with second who also hated it and had reflux. Couldn’t see any difference between the one that did and one that didn’t

A bit but not as much as recommended on my now 2 year old. No obvious physical disability as far as I can tell.

I do it, but my son likes it. If she hates it and has reflux I wouldnt bother. I think her discomfort would far outweigh the benefits of it

Ds was a chunky baby and was always uncomfortable on his tummy so we didn't do it really.

I didn’t. But carried in arms/had in sling all the time for upper body strength.

Even if baby is against your chest on their tummy it's still technically tummy time. Was told this by my health visitor

I tried to do tummy time. It was pretty abjectly miserable, and my DD didn’t even have reflux!

In my case, DD just always wanted to be as upright as possible and HATED being stuck face down. When she was tiny, I did the advice of “just do 30s to a minute, and when she tolerates that well you can gradually creep it up”. She NEVER tolerated it well! Months later it was still a miserable minute. I tried toys, mirrors, everything. I felt like a totally crap mum some days, when other babies had started crawling and mine still hated any tummy time at all!

If you can’t get your little one to cooperate (which I assume is the case with kids with reflux) then look for other opportunities to strengthen those muscle groups. Hold them in lots of different positions so they are using different muscles to hold/move their heads. I used to hold mine over my arm with her legs near my elbow and my hand supporting her neck/face and then dance with her near the window - she’d move and twist around to see the light. Or holding her upright round the waist (when bigger and had good head/chest control) and dancing/twirling in front of a mirror so that she’d move around a lot to follow our reflections. Or I’d lie on my back with my knees up and do “superheroes” holding her arms out (but maybe don’t do this with a refluxy baby as you might get sick in your face....). Once she could sit propped up a bit I had one of those inflatable circle tube thingies so that she could flollop around and try to reach toys so she was getting a decent amount of core exercise. Plenty of time with play dough (when old enough not to stuff it in her mouth) to encourage hand/palm strength, and plenty of squishy bath toys for the same reason.

As it was, DD was a very late crawler. She was a very steady walker before she was a year old, but didn’t crawl till nearly 16 months. She’s 4 now, and you’d never know from her development that she was so disastrous with tummy time! Providing you give them lots of opportunities to move their bodies, I don’t think it will matter if one particular style is missing.

Absolutely not. 50% laziness 50% DS hated.

He is by far the strongest out of all his friends so it's clearly made sod all dofference

Hi, my DD had silent reflux so no we didn’t do tummy time, she found it painful. She was slow to crawl and walk, but not sure you can correlate that. She’s absolutely fine now at 14 years old. I felt bad about it at the time, as you do get pressure from others about it, but in the circumstances it was the best thing to do.

This thread makes me feel so much better! DD is 11 weeks and hates tummy time so although I keep trying she gets very little of it. DS was the same and had terrible reflux, and he was late to crawl and walk, but I think that's because he was a preemie. He's caught up now age 2! My HV said the same about time lying on you being just as good.

I did as he usually cried whichever way up I put him anyway. He wanted to be held until he crawled at five months. The tummy time could have helped but no way of knowing really.

2 DCs both with reflux and hated tummy time so I didn't do it as they just screamed. Both crawled on the later side - 9 months - but both walked at 12 months. Now 8 and 10 and have developed perfectly normally!

No not at all, none of them likes it so I didn't bother. They didn't seem to have any issues because of it.

My 3 are now over 20, all big, strong, healthy and when they were young I had never heard of the term ‘tummy time’
Just do what you feel is right.
If they like it, do it.
If they don’t, don’t.

Nope rarely did it, to reflux or anything, just didn’t do it and when I did DD didn’t seem to like it and preferred being on her back or sat upright in my arms. Don’t fret about it!

Load of shit. DC is 4 months sitting up alone and barely done tummy time.

He hated it so naturally I didn’t do it 😂

I did very little deliberate tummy time but DS spent most of his newborn days upright on my chest which counts.

DC1 hated it so we didn't do it. He had silent reflux.

DC2 is still tiny (6 weeks) but I've tried tummy time a couple of times and she tolerates it ok, better than DC1 ever did. So I will try and do it if and when I think of it!! She also has a bit of reflux but doesn't seem too uncomfortable with it or at least not all the time.

As PP has said, lying baby on their front on your tummy works too. Spent most of the first 3 months of my baby's life (lockdown) like this on the sofa and his back and neck is so strong! Might not be related but made me not worry about keeping trying to put him on his tummy on the floor.

Also I had no idea that holding them upright (in arms or carrier) actually counts as tummy time! Would have saved me quite a bit of angst if I'd know that when I was worrying about not doing enough tummy time with DC1!

As PP said, if you're reclining with them on your chest, tummy to tummy, or carrying them in a sling, it counts as tummy time. You've probably done it without realising.

No, baby didn’t last longer than 30 seconds without having a meltdown. Once they could roll over by themselves they were constantly wanting to lie on their front.

Mine all like to be on their front across my lap, I'd put the leg nearest their head slightly higher than the other leg. I'd rub their back or jiggle my legs a bit, I found it a really good position if they were a bit grizzly.
DS1 had flat head and torticollis so I tried to get him off his back as much as possible.

Nope, I never made either of mine do tummy time on the floor. My eldest hated being on his front until about 4 months, when he started rolling over by himself, and so I never bothered to even try with the second. I did carry them both around a lot against my shoulder so they started looking up and strengthening their neck muscles then. Both started crawling/walking at normal times, so it can’t have hurt them too much to do without!