Tummy Time Difficulties

A lot of babies don't like tummy time. She will start to like it more as she gets older. Once she can hold her head up on her own, she will get more comfortable with it. Don't try to do tummy time too close to feedings. If she has just been fed, she won't like being on her tummy when it is full. Keep trying different things and if she only tolerates it for a minute or two at a time, that is ok. Tummy time does not have to be for an extended period of time. Daddy is great for tummy time too. Some babies don't like to do it laying on mom but it becomes play time with daddy. Relax a little and she will make all those milestones when she is ready.

We had the same problem with my daughter, and she grew out of it. What I did was just put her on her tummy for short amounts of time throughout the day, and I moved her to a different position when she fussed. I didn't like seeing her get that upset either, so I didn't wait as long as your doctor suggested before I moved her. Don't sweat it- your daughter will probably grow out of this too. Babies just do things on their own schedule. It's great that you and your husband are so dedicated to her healthy development. Good luck!

Three minutes sounds about right to me. Most babies get frustrated with it fast. I dont know how old your baby is, but that sounds typical. Don't expect her to stay on her tummy for an hour or anything! Try a few *short* episodes every day.

I wouldn't worry about it. Our son didn't like tummy time either. He rarely was on his tummy. He learned to roll over laying on his back and started walking at 10 months old. I think tummy time is a little over rated.

Hi A.,
My little guy didn't like tummy time either. His back or side were ok but not the tummy. We bought the tummy pillow and anything else we could find and tried the things the Dr. suggested, but nothing worked. We finally decided to start rolling him. Have him on his back and roll him from side to side. That worked really well for us because he figured out how to throw his leg over and get to his belly. It only took about a week. He didn't cry anymore because he did it on his own, I guess. Anyway the next problem we had was he forgot how to get back to his back. So we just reversed what we did to begin with. lol Long enough story short, we didn't let him cry or fuss for too long. Probably not even 3 minutes. He was walking at 10 1/2 months and all is fine. You have gotten some really good suggestions and if you find nothing seems to work, use your imagination. You know what she likes. I think sometimes Dr.'s make things to hard or complicated. Hope this will help.

Isn't that frustrating? Our little girl wouldn't even last a minute without fussing. I only let her fuss for 30 seconds to a minute and then turned her over. I was really worried about it, too, but she turned out fine. :) I'm not sure how old your little one is, but if she's got a strong enough neck, you can sit down on the floor with your legs bent up to your chest and put her on your shins so her head is by your knees and her feet are by your feet. Then rock back until you are laying on your back and you can lift your feet up so she is on her tummy but at an angle. This didn't seem to bother our little one as much. If you add a stomach contraction, it's also a good workout for you. :)

I don't know how old your daughter is, but I agree with the rest, 3 minutes at a time does it. I wouldn't let her get upset either. Another thought I had, though, is that they say that time in a sling helps with the same muscle groups and strenghtens them the same way tummy time does (it just doesn't give them a chance to try to roll over). My kids both loved time in the sling, so you might try something like that. They're super handy too, much easier than a stroller. Mostly, though it sounds like you're doing well. If you haven't tried laying her on your tummy while you're laying down, that is a possibility too. It will come. Both my girls didn't want tummy time, but we never had much if any developmental delays, both walking by 11 mo. She'll tell you what she needs.

K.

Hi A.-
My son was the same way. He had tortocollis (spelling?) which is a neck issue where the baby only wants to look to one side and it is corrected by chiropractic, plus he had a very large head and a very large personality. So I understand the difficulty in tummy time. My doula suggested using an exercise ball and it worked pretty good with him. You start with baby "standing" and ball touching baby's belly. Then, while holding baby, you slowly roll from standing to tummy. As they start to fuss, roll back to standing position. My little one was also facinated with the TV so we would only allow him to "watch" TV while doing tummy time on the ball. He did crawl later (about 12 months old), but he walked about two weeks after he learned to crawl. I know there are lots of benefits of crawling first, but he has had no developmental delays and in fact, I feel like he explores his world more than most kids his age. (This is an advantage to crawling.) They also make long blow up rolls (you can get them at walmart for about $10) which are similar to the exercise ball, but much smaller and less awkward. It has a safari theme and balls inside. It's supposed to encourage crawling by rolling when baby pushes it. But I would use it under baby (while you hold onto baby). One last tidbit...my friend had trouble with tummy time too. She got a mat that had a small pillow that you place under baby's chest. For some reason having help lifting up made her baby tolerate tummy time better. I would suggest first making sure there are no neck or head issues that is making it uncomfortable for your baby to do tummy time. If there is head or neck issues, I would contact your chiropractor (or you can email me if you don't have one and need further info). If there are no head/neck issues, then I would just be persistant and maybe do tummy time for 1-2 minutes several times a day.

Good luck!