Tummy time at 10 weeks

[naisspray]

My LO hates Timmy time and I don't know if I'm doing it right.

He will lift his head for a few seconds when on his stomach but compared to others his age he's doing terrible. I will put him on my chest when sitting up or I'm laying down, he can hold his head up for longer... just he can't do it when on his stomach.

Any ideas?

Don't sweat it, in my opinion people hugely exaggerate the need for it.
Tummy time on your chest is great, you could try with a pillow or dock a tot type thing so he is a bit more propped up on a play mat.
My little one hated tummy time, and had bad silent reflux so we avoided just plonking her on the floor on her stomach. She was still sitting by 5.5 months and crawling by 7.5

Sorry I wasn't clear. If LO is on a hard flat surface he can barely lift his head.

If he's on my stomach and I'm sitting up or on my back, he's much better.

He's currently sitting on a leg and holding his head ok. So it's not floppy.

What am I trying to do when he's on my chest? Because he will hold his head up, for a long period of time but he's not using his arms.

On the floor my daughter did probably a total of 30 seconds of tummy time

She did hours and hours and days and weeks of tummy time lay on me. It counts and she had absolutely amazing head control. The midwife commented that she shouldn't be able to move her head as well as she could.

If you are getting nowhere with on the floor methods I would look at tummy time on you instead

DD refused to do it too. Just screamed. I stopped doing it when I read that you holding them up on your shoulder counts too. She'd happily sit like that for hours. She's a very strong and healthy 4 yo now

Did you let her lay on your chest? Where you flat?

Don't worry, loads of babies hate it anyway. DC1 hated it, she just screamed, so I wasn't going to force her to stay stuck like that screaming. Then she learned to roll front to back really early so she'd just immediately roll into her back - fair enough I thought! DC2 did more tummy time as he tolerated it better, probably because he had DC1 to watch or her more interesting toys, and also just different, more tolerant temperament. I can't say it made any difference to either of them really.

I never did tummy time. It wasn’t a thing. My DDs grew up fine without it.

I think it's just not having them on their back.... but how do they get strength and learn to turn over etc

Same here. It really wasn't a thing when mine were little and all fully functioning normal adults.

Don't worry about it. Time spent lying on your chest or in a carrier counts as well. They don't need to learn how to push up and roll over in a specific way, it will come. I never did more than a couple of minutes a day whenever I remembered.

Tummy time doesn't literally mean lie them on the floor on their stomach, it just means time when they are not lying flat on their back. Being carried in a sling counts, cuddles count, sleeping on your chest counts...

What about being carried in my arms?

I didn't bother with tummy time. At all. It's pointless and just creates stress and worry. Everything turned out fine and at age 3 my eldest got a gymnastics medal. I have 2 happy and healthy children

All of mine hated it. I tried them all for a week but gave up. They all crawled, walked, climbed, ran, etc well within the normal time range. I saw no point in deliberately distressing them. I think that's far more harmful in the long run than any alleged benefits of tummy time. (And I dispute those benefits anyway.)

They will eventually figure it out.

You lay them down on their backs and one day you'll turn around and they'll be trying to turn over to their tummy, or they'll have succeeded and they'll be just as surprised as you are.

I never did tummy time with mine, it's not like kids grow up unable to hold their heads up if they don't do it.

Look at Emma Hubbard, tummy time, on YouTube. She has very nice videos on this!

Really just do not worry! Mums seem to get concerned about these things, they pass and then it's the next thing. My baby never crawled, didn't walk independently till he was 18 months. He's now a personal trainer and great at kickboxing - it didn't mean a thing.

Tummy time only became a thing in more recent years. It came about after the change from putting sleeping babies on their front to their backs. Anyone saying that they didn't do tummy time with their children but put them to sleep on their front. Yes you did "tummy time" it was call going to bed /waking up. In the moments and minutes after waking they got the opportunities to exercise their neck muscles and improve their head control. With the back to sleep initiative this doesn't happen and what was found on a nationwide level was a delay in babies getting food head control. For the majority of children this delay would be unnoticeable. It could be a delay of 3 days or a week you would not know if they would have learnt the skills a fraction quicker with tummy time but the average time to learnt the skill was drifting later folllow the sleep changes. Encouraging mums to get their babies to lie on their tummies was introduced to provide them with the opportunities to learn to lift their heads and at some point it turned into something to berate new mums with

In answer to your question @naisspray I sat on the sofa and she lay on me. They just need to be in a position where they can lift their head away from anything that is their "ground" and for this situation the ground was my boobs.

Thank you. Yes he is fine doing is when on me, but I thought it was due to the incline etc.... but he hates doing it when on the floor etc. yes I get down there so he can see my face etc but he still hates it

Then I wouldn't worry. My daughter has severe reflux and still doesn't like lying on her tummy at 3 but would spend hours leaning against my chest

DD had reflux and hated tummy time with a passion. I got so stressed with it all even though, like your baby, she could lift her head on my chest and when in the sling too. Fast forward a few months, she hit all her milestones early and is now a happy, healthy 2.8 year old. We now have DS and I've been so much more chilled about tummy time and, ironically, he actually seems to enjoy it but my point is, try not to stress about it. There's a lot of emphasis and pressure to do tummy time but it's really not the end of the world.