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.

We barely did any at that age. I, too, became worried it’d set him back and started more of it, but still nowhere near the recommended amount. He wasn’t a fan.

He’s now 7 months and cruising the furniture - won’t sit down for more than a few mins.

Do what you can and don’t worry. Babies are biologically hard wired to do these things, Timmy time or not. We did a lot of sitting upright on our knees and things like that.

My daughter absolutely hated it. She's seven months now, crawling and sitting up on her own. Just left her to it and she did it in her own time

I've never heard of tummy time. I'm going to sound like an old person now and say "they didn't have it in my day".
DD1 walked at 9 months, DD2at 10 months. I think they survived pretty well without it, as did their peers.

@Cassimin

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.

Exactly this

I feel guilty about this too, which annoys me. My DD is 6 months and just starting to get over her reflux. Think we did tummy time 3 times ever; she hated it and it made her sick. I'm pretty sure nobody will be able to tell when she's 18 whether or not she did tummy time as a baby!! That's what I'm telling myself....hope I'm not wrong!

I did it with mine, though not as much as recommended. She did not enjoy it at the beginning, so I moved her when she looked like she had enough. But she came to love it when she started kicking her legs. She did not crawl though. She did not have reflux, but she threw up sometimes when very little. So I waited for a while after feeding.
I think it is good for them to keep trying gently, move them if they do not like it.
They will do it on their own once they learn to roll, and you are not that far away anyway.

For those with older children, tummy time didn't used to be a thing. It came about as a consequence of the sleeping on the back advice. Prior to this babies got plenty of tummy time when they slept and first woke up they could exercise their neck muscles etc.

Some time after advice change from front sleeping to back sleeping it was noticed that the back sleeping meant babies were getting control of their heads and crawling etc at a slightly slower pace than before. Tummy time was created to get some of the benefits of sleeping on their fronts without the sids risk.

At the end of the day all babies eventually gain control of their heads and get mobile. If they like tummy time and that's great, they might pick those skills up quicker.
Most of our tummy time is on me and actually I popped her in the crib on her tummy for 2 minutes whilst I got ready for bed and she was happier any time I have popped her on the floor for tummy time.

My first hated it so I rarely tried, but she was late with all her milestones and I felt so guilty. My second would have slept on her tummy if I let her and has progressed much quicker.

I have no idea if its linked or just coincidence, but both got there in the end!

My dd hated it and had silent reflux so we didn't.

@Superscientist

For those with older children, tummy time didn't used to be a thing. It came about as a consequence of the sleeping on the back advice. Prior to this babies got plenty of tummy time when they slept and first woke up they could exercise their neck muscles etc.

Some time after advice change from front sleeping to back sleeping it was noticed that the back sleeping meant babies were getting control of their heads and crawling etc at a slightly slower pace than before. Tummy time was created to get some of the benefits of sleeping on their fronts without the sids risk.

At the end of the day all babies eventually gain control of their heads and get mobile. If they like tummy time and that's great, they might pick those skills up quicker.
Most of our tummy time is on me and actually I popped her in the crib on her tummy for 2 minutes whilst I got ready for bed and she was happier any time I have popped her on the floor for tummy time.

Thanks. That actually makes sense. I've learned something new today.