4 month old hates tummy time

[taylorwilde]

My DD is 4 months old. She absolutely hates tummy time. She tends to just rest her head on the rug during tummy time and doesn't try to lift her head up off the ground. She's in the 91st centile for weight so her head is likely quite heavy. I'm getting increasingly concerned that her head control is delayed.

I do try to practice with her daily but she's been teething recently and quite grumpy. I've booked an assessment with the Health Visitor and bought a new tummy time pillow to help her. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!

You don't have to do tummy time on the floor. You can lie down with a pillow under your head (if you like) and have her on your chest which is nice or across your lap.

If you're feeling yogic you can lie like in this picture but position baby on top of your shins head towards your knees - keep hands on but as you get more confident you can just hold her arms. You can jiggle her up and down a little if she likes it, it's fun!

DS2 was the same from birth - around 5 months or so. Preserver with the pillow, usually they have toys on them try removing them from the pillow and placing them a bit in front of baby so they can look at them and try to reach for them.

Also found that putting my son on my bed and me kneeling on the floor at his eye level was a great help as it wasn't a hard surface and he could look at me.

Little and often really is the key

My little guy is 6.5 months and hated tummy time. He either cried or puked every time we did it. So we stopped doing it on the floor for a bit but would do siting up on our chest. About three weeks ago we restarted and he's now fine with it. He's learnt to roll and sit up completely unassisted in the last week.

They are all different. My dd never once rolled over and refused tummy time. She’s about to do her a levels now, predicted 3 As .
Really really really you don’t have to worry.

Just like pp have said. Tummy time doesn’t have to be on the floor. My dd liked it when I lay her on me, her tummy against mine. You can also have skin to skin contact where baby’s bare tummy against your bare tummy while lying on the bed.

I worried a lot too at the beginning but it’s because we love our little babies and want them to be ok. Your doing a good job and sound like a great mum.

Thanks for the advice everyone! We did try tummy time on the bed this morning and she liked that better. It's hard to watch her struggle but I know she'll get there in her own time!

Our first HATED tummy time and would cry.

We discovered he had torticolis so that was hurting him which tummy time made worse.

We were sent for physio and some tummy time tips we picked up:

Do it on your chest to start with
Use toys that make noise to get babies attention
Support baby at the hips, helps support the torso and make it easier to hold head up.
Little and often

Our second hated it too until recently and he just seemed to get it. I try and do a bit before each feed.

Tummy time wasn't a thing when my dc were young. Didn't delay any developments!!
Even dgc walked at 7 months without it!!

Being in a sling sounds a tummy time.

I wouldn't bother if they hate it. My DD hated it and cried so we didn't bother. We just tried every now and then to see if she'd changed her mind. She didn't, and she learnt to roll over tummy to back very early so then she would just immediately do that if we put her on her tummy haha.

I never really did 'tummy time' with my DD, she hated it.

My son loathed tummy time so I just didn’t do it. It never held him back. I did have him in the sling lots or carried against my shoulder so he had plenty of opportunities to develop neck strength and head control in positions he enjoyed. I’m sure you’re doing similar.

Don't do it. It's not necessary. Ds hated it so we stopped. He seems like a relatively normal child now.

DS cried to the point of vomiting if we tried it. So we just kept him in the sling which actually provides some pseudo tummy time. He was walking by 9 months so it clearly didn't hold him back. He was a v sicky and hypermobile baby so tummy time was torture for him.

Just don't do it. Both of mine hated it, so we didn't really bother. They learnt to crawl at 9 months and 5 months respectively, and were both walking before age 1. I really wouldn't worry.

My first hated it, so we didn’t do it and she still managed to walk at 9 months. My second loved it and is still stuck cruising at 11 months. Fine if your baby enjoys it but I’m not convinced it has any worthwhile purpose.

Mine hated tummy time as well. So I didn’t bother with it. Now they’re both at primary school and do karate! Don’t worry.

@taylorwilde Definitely start on your tummy/chest until she starts enjoying it more 😊 mine loved tummy time so I think I was just really lucky judging by all the replies on here 🙈🤣 DS loved lying watching the flashing lights on his Kick & Play piano playgym thing and I bought a water mat for a few pounds off Amazon that had fish etc in for him to look at and move around and he lovely that too 😊