8Month Old Won't Go on Belly

Hi A., Yes tummy time and crawling are essential for so many things, especially for brain development for attention asset and for emotional regulation; also for school readiness for reading and other academic activities. You can look at my website, www.mamabebe.org. There are many activities and games that you can do with her to help her adapt to tummy time and to bring her back down to the floor for crawling, even after she starts to cruise and walk.

Here's my 2 cents on "tummy time". It's a fairly recent notion that infants must spend prescribed amounts of time each day on their stomachs.....

Like your daughter, my son did not care for tummy time, and I never pushed it. Sometimes he would tolerate it for a few minutes, but if he started screaming, I turned him on his side or back. What worked for us was to prop him up on a Boppy pillow with a mirror facing him.

If your daughter can stand and likes doing so, she may very well skip, or at least "skim", the whole crawling business. My husband never crawled, according to his mother.

All that being said, if your mommy instincts tell you something is wrong, consider chiropractic care. When my son was 9 months old, he still could not sit unsupported. His Pediatriac Nurse Practitioner freaked out; she had another nurse look at him, and they both wanted him to see a Neurologist. We ended up just taking him to a chiropractor for a few adjustments. His left hip was a little out of whack. He went from not being able to sit on his own to crawling to standing in only 6 weeks!

Good luck to you!

The only thing I can think of is tricking her into having belly time on your belly! (She lays on you and you lay on your back.) Or give her belly time on something like your bed so you can be right at eye level and try to make faces or play with her from the edge of the bed.

I'm sure this is a stretch, but when my daughter was an infant, she hated tummy time. In fact, we started to notice that she hated turning her head to the left and would scream when we would try. We tried everything. I was concerned and repeatedly asked our ped. about it. Finally my sister-in-law, a nurse, remembered hearing about a condition in nursing school. She asked a friend who worked in peds and eventually we discovered she had torticollis. It's a condition where, in her case, she dropped early in pregnancy and muscles in one side of her neck grew longer than the other. We did a lot of physical therapy and is fine now at 5. I'm happy we discovered the cause because it can lead to other problems and delays. I'm sure your child is probably fine, a lot of babies don't like tummy time, but you obviously have concerns and your ped should be able to address possible causes and rule them out. PS. We switched pediatricians and I'm so glad we did. Good Luck!!!

A.,

My daughter, now 2.5 years was exactly like your daughter. She ALWAYS hated tummy time. At 6.5 months she was pulling herself to standing, but had never even rolled over from back to belly. (She would roll from belly to back at just a couple of months old because she hated being on her belly so much.) We were convinced that she would be walking very young and never crawl first. One day when she was about 9 mos. old, I came home from work and out of no where she crawled to me. After that, she zipped around crawling everywhere and didn't walk until 12 mos. Now at 2.5 yrs, she has very good fine motor and gross motor skills. I'm telling you all this, just so you know that other kids who don't like tummy time turn out just fine and they don't necessarily fall behind with any of their motor skills. Your daughter probably just likes seeing what's going on, and it's hard to do that from your belly. Once she realizes that she can move around from that position, she'll probably change her mind!

Best to you and your daughter!

L.

Some babies don't want to be on their belly. My son never did either. He also started walking at 11 months. As long as they are still learning everything else, it doesn't matter if they crawl or have tummie time. There are a lot of people that their children never had tummie time and they turned out great, just as I am sure you Daughter will.

My daughter was exactly the same. She never did like being on her belly and she never did crawl. She did however start walking at 11 months because she was so much more determined to do that instead of crawling. I think some babies just hop over that stage. The more I looked around and asked other moms the more I notice that it's quite normal for babies not to crawl or want to be on their tummies. Remember all babies develop on their own time line and although you can always try to get them to do something they will develop on their own terms. My daughter was never really good at rolling over either cause she did it once around 3-4 months and learned when she rolled over she would end up on her belly and that was not pleasant so she never really wanted to give that a try again. you say your little girl is trying to pull herself up I would just allow her to do that try to walk her around holding her hands it could just be that she will go that route instead.

Although I tend to be a pretty laid back mom there are some things that I am anal about...normal development is one of them. I know there are some people who think no tummy time is ok when your baby obviously doesn't like it and they'll end up "ok". I would hesitate to take that answer. If you talk to an occupational therapist or physical therapist many will be able to explain to you why tummy time is so extremely important. B/c of SIDS prevention babies are now made to sleep on their backs (which is the safest and most effective way to prevent SIDS, I totally back that) BUT then there has to be somewhere that babies spend time on their tummies. Tummy time is not just about learning to crawl. Believe it or not the time your baby spends on his tummy is actually teaching him to read and how to sit for long periods of time at school...I know that doesn't make sense but its true, its about your babies eyes learning to look from side to side and about learning to use neck muscles... So although many, many children without tummy time end up normal in that they are fine with when they learn to walk the effects of no tummy time can actually present itself as late as kindergarten.
My middle son also hated tummy time...he also didn't role over until he was close to 8 months old so we had to have many months of it. Quite a few babies don't like tummy time so I wouldn't worry about anything being abnormal unless it sounds like she is in pain...I did what others have suggested. Tried to find toys to amuse him, put him on my tummy, even did the tv thing a couple of times. Tummy time ended up being our play time b.c he just would not put up with being on his tummy without being entertained so I sang him songs and tried to make it as fun for him as possible. It wasn't fun most of the time but I just saw it as something that had to be done, like vaccines and tooth brushing...So I encourage you to keep going with it, you only have a couple of months left...
If you have further questions about this I would encourage you to contact a trained occupational therapist. They can give you ideas about things to encourage tummy time as well as the importance of tummy time for development.
K. H.

She probably *will* progress. In the meantime, you could try some "special" tummy time things, like laying her on a child-safe mirror (like the ones they use for watching baby in the car), a large ziploc with a little bit of water, play mats, or if you're really desperate, 5 minutes of Baby Einstein or something (I know APA recommends no TV for children under 2, but in this case, for only a few minutes of something age-appropriate, I would think it would be an OK trade-off to get her to do something else to benefit her health). You could cruise through Once Upon a Child or something to see if there are things you could use that she'd be interested in looking at on her belly.

You could try "walking" her along by holding her hands, increasing the amount of weight on her legs. A change of scenery might distract her enough to enjoy it. Good luck!

Hi A.,
My son hated to be put on his belly as well. From the beginning! Since I wasn't about to listen to him fuss and cry during playtime, I focused on what he seemed to like to do. Is your daughter sitting up? Why not let her play with toys in a sitting position with a boppy behind her for support. You can put little toys in front of her or many push toys can be adjusted to be used in a sitting position. Also, some push toys can be locked into place, making them perfect for pulling up and standing. If she's struggling to sit up right now, I found that the Leap Frog ABC ball placed right between his legs (with the boppy around his butt) really helped my son to stabilize himself (just the right height)! Also, let her stand in the exersaucer as much as she wants to. You could even try to work something out with your couch and an ottoman (if you have one) to support her from both sides while she stands and plays. Your daughter knows what she likes - go with that. Not having tummy time will NOT affect her development! She'll get there.
Best of luck,
Amy K

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Some babies don't even crawl. They just skip to walking. Crawling isn't even on the "milestones" chart anymore because of this. My daughter hated tummy time as well and she was walking before her 1st bday. As long as she is developing normally elsewhere, I would just let her be.

keep trying with her. make sure there is some favorite toys things she likes while she is down there. slowly increase the time you let her cry. although not all babies crawl or have thier own way of crawling its important that they get the belly time. it helps with the development with the natural curve of thier spines. that's why they push it so much. my son hated to be on his belly also would just scream when he was on it, then all the sudden it was like a switch came on and he realized he could get things while on his belly. then it was impossable to keep him off of his belly. he didn't do the "normal" crawl, his was a bear walk.. on his hands and feet and he could beat any other baby in speed.