How to Make Tummy Time a Happy Time?

Hi L.
My so HATED tummy time so we never did it. I did however hold him over my shoulder alot to build his neck muscles. He is healthy happy 8 yrs old now. I would put him down a few times a day for as long as he will tolerate. Some is always better than none:) Have A Great Day T.

My son hated it too. We hardly ever did it, and he learned to walk before he learned to crawl. He's two now and seems just fine.

I hope you get some good suggestions- nothing that we tried worked, except for laying on my back with him on my chest.

But don't worry too much if your baby never learns to love it. Even our son's doc reassured me it wouldn't ruin him for life if I never did tummy time :)

Mine didn't like it in the beginning either. I didn't start doing it until he was 4 months old and always tried to do it with other baby friends. I found that once his neck/shoulders/ arms got strong enough, it wasn't so bad for him. For my kid, it was matter of getting use to it because he did cry in the beginning. I did try to put a toy in front of him that he liked, something that may make sounds or blinking lights. He rolled over at 5 months so he stopped disliking tummy time because he could move himself in and out of position by himeself.

My daughter is 2 months old and will tolerate tummy time, but isn't a real fan of it. However, if I lay her on her tummy on my lap, she'll stay there happy as can be. She's always seemed to have a strong neck, so I actually got a bumbo seat and actually just started using that today. I figured that has to be strengthing some of the same muscles and she seems to like sitting there and looking around. I also hold her on my shoulder a lot and she pushes out a bit to look at me, so works her arms that way. So just have to be a little creative and can get similar results that tummy time would.

I usually put my baby on the bed on her tummy, and I would sit on the floor right undernieth her face and I'd show her books (with lots of contrast, I'd recommend the books by Tana Hoban: Black on White and White on Black.) I'd make faces with her or play with toys with her, etc. That made it pretty fun for her and kept her interest.

My daughter didn't like it that much at first. We would start with as little as a minute each day. We would go longer each day or as long as she would like it. We also would sit in a reclining chair has recline the chair and put her on our chests (tummy down), this is just as good as floor time - plus its easier on your body...lol

A couple things we did that helped out were propping her chest up on a boppy pillow and also finding things she really enjoyed to look at to keep her interested. She preferred being off the ground a little in the beginning so the boppy worked great. One of her favorite things to look at was a face I drew on a paper plate with black marker. She loved to look at that thing and would follow it all over…very easy and cheap to try. We also found a few toys that lit up and played music and she really liked to look at those. Once we found things she really enjoyed looking at, tummy time got much easier and she was rolling over to her back in no time.

You are not alone! My son is 3 1/2 months old, and he hates it, too. He will tolerate tummy time for about 5 minutes. I lay his chest and arms on a pillow (I have a Boppy), and that definitely seems to help.

I don't force it on him, though. When he's had enough, he lets me know and I flip him over.

Because of the "Back to Sleep" campaign in the 90s, babies today hardly spend any time on their tummies--they're just not used to it.