Infant

Try laying on your back and putting your son on your tummy and get a toy he likes something bright and put it in front of him so he can see it and lift it slowly see how he does.

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J. my daughter is 10 weeks she lifts her head up a little but HATES to lay on her tummy as well. I wouldn't be worried this early. Will he look at a mobile while on his back? As long as he is fixing his eyes on things I wouldn't worry about the tummy thing yet. It may just be he dosen't like laying on his tummy. My six year old loved it when she was a baby but this baby is different maybe yours just prefers his back like my baby.

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You've gotten some good suggestions already. If your son is highly resistant to tummy time despite those techniques, carrying your baby upright in a soft carrier such as a pouch sling, ring sling, mei tai, or wrap will help strengthen neck muscles and can replace tummy time for the highly resistant child.

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Have you tried propping him up on a boppy or a pillow? Sometimes they need a little help in the beginning. Also, get down on the floor in front of him so he can see you. Gives him some incentive to lift his head. Good luck!

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Yes, the lovely 'tummy time'. None of my four children really enjoyed tummy time very much in the beginning. But I would still try it about 20 minutes every day. Sometimes they would cry the entire time. Sometimes, they would get so mad at being on their tummy that they just pushed themselves over to their back! LOL. At That Age! Usually I just lay down on my tummy with them and try to encourage them with possitive words and happy talking and show them toys etc. Even if they are mad they are on their back, it's only 20 minutes but a really good excersize for them and it sometimes excersizes their lung control too (crying hard). Bless their little hearts.

Keep up the good work Mom! Keep that Tummy Time on his schedule. Being a parent isn't easy - sometimes we've got to do things that are best for them, even if they don't think so.
C. R.

Hi! I am an Occupational Therapist who works with kiddos on development. Try putting a rolled blanket or boppy pillow under his chest while on tummy. He may also like to be placed on a fun colorful blanket. Many infants dislike tummy time, but keep on trying. Does he hold his head fairly steady while you hold him up at your shoulder? Please feel free to email me at ____@____.com. Thanks!

My daughter hates it too. I googled "Tummy time help" and one of the suggestions was putting her belly down on my shins while I was laying down and lifting her up & down (kind of like airplane). She loves this! I also found she does the best when she's naked. My daughter is 4 months and has only rolled over from tummy to back a handful of times and it's always been when she's naked or in just a diaper! Hey, whatever works. Just keep trying a few minutes at a time and he'll get more used to it.

My daughter was the same way, when she was that age. She is 9 months old now and we still have times when she will not be on her stomach. One thing that I did to get her to work her neck and back mucles was I laid down on the floor and held her in the air above me and played with her. I was told that all it probably was just gas and that she would eventually work it out during tummy time. You just have to be patient with him and it will be okay.

Have you tried just laying him across your lap or on your tummy while you're laying down? I found my little one could handle it better if he knew he had a friend near by. Good luck!

I think laying on a parents tummy is your best bet, but I just had to remind you that if you use a pillow it needs to be very firm and you'll need to really watch if the baby gets too tired to move his head much, I'd hate for a well meaning suggestion to go bad.

I agree with the other moms. For most babies that don't enjoy tummy time on the floor, they will tolerate tummy time on a parent's chest because the prefer the interaction they get with you. You can let him start off by laying him on your chest and talking or singing a song to him and engaging him with some of his favorite toys. I wouldn't worry too much about tummy time. Some kids just skip certain stages. My daughter never really crawled. She sort of slid on her tummy until one day she decided she wanted to practice walking. So, if your son doesn't do "everything" that other kids are doing, I wouldn't worry too much over it as long as he is growing and his pediatrician isn't worried about it. Enjoy these wonderful baby stages!!!

My son is five months, he did not like tummy time either because he wasn't lifting his head. I broke it down into smaller time frames. Like 5 minutes every couple of hours. After a week of that he had his head up and didn't mind it at all. My husband would also lay him on his chest for tummy time, Cameron loved that because his dad would make faces and talk to him during it.

My daughter is 3 months old, and she used to dislike tummy time too. She would just flail about and not really try to lift up her head at all, even though she had gotten so good at keeping it up when we were carrying her. One suggestion I have for you is to put a brightly-colored picture book or magazine underneath of him. I tried this with my daughter, and she liked to look at it. Also, recently, I have been lying down completely flat on my stomach on the floor and making eye contact with her, and I look at her and then run my fingers from her shoulders all the way down to her legs, tickling her and making noises, and she seems to really like that.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about it too much--my daughter seemed to go from not really wanting to lift herself up during tummy time, to all of a sudden propping herself up really well and keeping her head up really well. I think that she finally just got strong enough to do it, and now she doesn't dislike tummy time as much. One way that she really got her neck muscles developed was by looking around at things when we hold her over our shoulder, so if you don't carry your son that way as often, you could try that, because that honestly got her a better neck workout when she was younger than tummy time did.

Great job for giving him tummy time! If you have a boppy pillow, you can prop him up on that with his arms in front of him and some toys within his reach. If he gets mad doing this, you can also put him like this on the bed so that he is facing the edge of the bed. You can sit on the floor and entertain/distract him. If you don't have a boppy pillow, you can probably roll up a blanket or towel and use it like you would the boppy.

You can also lay on the floor or couch and put him on your tummy so that he has to look up to look at you.

You can do short intervals on his tummy and when he starts to fuss, try to entertain him for just a little longer, then switch positions. You can try to gradually increase the time he is on his tummy until he is used to it. Some babies just never like it though, and that's ok. He will still reach his milestones at some point. Tummy time is great though so hopefully you can help him adjust over time.

Good Morning J., alot of babies just do not like tummy time. Took us a while to get our gr children to do tummy time. We had the tummy matts too. What did help alot was to lay the baby on our chest or tummy's, and talk to them, tickle and giggle with them. They try to lift up to look at momma's face. Hold their little hands up close to your chest.

He will be ok Hon, just be patient. Our 10 month old gr son just started really crawling last week.

Be Blessed
K. Nana of 5

You've already gotten lots of great advice! I really liked rolling up a towel and 'draping' my little guy over it, so it was kind of under his armpits. He didn't like tummy time either, but this seemed to help. And mirrors, toys, etc. that look interesting can help a lot. Good luck! And someone mentioned that as parents we sometimes need to encourage them to do things they don't like to, and I think this is one of those things. Just keep it short and be right there with her so she knows you're present.

I would highly recommend carrying your baby in a sling or other quality baby carrier in what we call the "tummy-to-tummy" or vertical position. Quite a few babies despise tummy time, carrying them against your chest in this vertical position is a great way for them to get tummy time without being on their stomach on the floor. It's also a perfect way for them to build up their upper body muscles and their leg muscles as well. I've carried all my kids this way, and their physical development has been amazing. If you are not familiar with "babywearing," as we call it, email me and I'm happy to point you to some great resources.

I had a preemie and we had this issue for a while ... I would place my baby on my tummy on HIS tummy and he seemed to like that, and as he got used to it he would life his head ALL the time! ...I suppose it was easier on his belly as it was not quite as hard as the floor. The other suggestion that was given to me, that seemed to SOMEWHAT work was purchase the breastfeeding pillow the Boppy ... and put him on his tummy propped up in it. I had to wait till he was almost 3 months old for this, but it did help ... I just put him in the middle, propped up on the pillow and played with a few of his toys with him, or read him a little bit of a book ... worked well for a few minutes at a time! Good Luck!

One of my daughters favorite games when she was that age was for me to lay her on her back and talk to her from one side of ther head and she would have to turn her head to "find me". We would do that a lot. That strengthened her muscles some them she enjoyed tummy time more. Also remember that tummy time tires them out quickly!!! Good luck!!

Virginia

I always had success with propping them up on a boppy or a pillow to give them a little help at first. And then I either laid in front of them or put a mirror in front of them. It gave them something interesting to look at. Some of my children liked tummy time more than others, but any time I ever saw one of those poor children who had on the helmet to help round their flat heads, it really helped remind me of the importance of tummy time, no matter how much my child didn't like it.

All great ideas, esp: rolled up towel/boppy under his chest and arms; toys within reach; only going 1-3 minutes at a time was suggested by our PAT techer, increasing by 30 seconds upt to a minimum of 7 minutes at each stint. We made black and white "stand up cards" with pictures of animals, people, objects-that catch the new born's eye and we rotated pictures, toys, etc., to kep our guy from getting bored. Call you local Parents as Teachers, they are a great resource!

My son hated tummy time too. What I did that seemed to work well, was lay on the floor next to him and lay so that when he lifts his head up, he sees your face. He will love it when you smile at him. Be patient with the tummy time thing. My son could only do it for 30 seconds or so at a time because he started screaming.