- While I love tummy time
and highly recommended it as a core activity
for babies to do, to promote healthy development,
some newborns absolutely hate it.
And until your little one is willing to do tummy time,
it can be really hard to develop their head control.
But the good news is there are lots of different ways
that you can develop your baby's neck strength
and overall head control, which aren't tummy time.
And that's exactly what I'm going to show you in this video.
And once your baby's head control improves
they're going to be much more willing
to do tummy time as well.
The first activity you can do
with your little one is roll them
onto their side before you pick them up.
So in hospital, we're often encouraged to pick up our babies
off the floor, the change mat,
or from their cot by placing a hand
behind their head and then lifting them up.
But I encourage you instead to roll your baby
onto their side.
And what you'll notice is when you roll your baby
onto their side, they automatically switch
onto their neck muscles to keep their head
in line with their body.
Now, this is a reflex that they're born with
and you can use it to help develop
your baby's next strength and control.
When you are using this technique to pick your baby up
off the floor, cot or change table
you do want to make sure that you alternate the side
that you're rolling your baby onto.
So one time you might roll them onto their left side
and the next time you pick them up, you might roll them
onto their right side.
Playing while lying on their side
is also another great position
which can help develop neck and head control,
as well as encourage them to turn on their tummy muscles,
to kick their legs and reach out for those toys.
So to put your baby into side-lying,
you would simply place them back
on the floor and you would straighten one leg.
And with the other leg, you would roll it over the top
of their body so that they come into side-lying.
Once they're in that position, you want to make sure
that both their hands are in front of their body.
And they have something interesting to look at,
like a toy or an interesting scenery.
You also want to place a rolled up towel
or your leg behind their back.
As this will ensure that they don't roll off their side,
onto their back or roll from their side onto their tummy.
And because there is a risk
that they will roll onto their tummy.
They always want to be supervised
when they're in this position.
When you are letting your baby playing side lining,
it is important to alternate the side that they are lying on
as this will ensure that both sides
of their body and their neck develop equally.
Encouraging your baby to follow a moving toy
will also help to develop their neck strength
and overall head control.
Being able to follow a moving toy is one of the many
exciting milestones your baby is going to achieve
in their first year of life.
If you want to know what other milestones
you can be expecting, then make sure you download
my free developmental checklist, which you can find
by clicking the link in the description box below.
So how do you help your baby follow a moving toy?
Well, it's really quite simple.
When they're lying on their back, you simply hold a toy
that's in their line of sight and then you move it
very, very slowly from one side to the other.
And you will notice that your baby will follow
that moving toy with their eyes and then their head.
Now being able to turn their head is working
on that neck strength and head control.
The next activity you can do
with your little one is simply carry them
in a way that encourages them to lift their head
and turn their head.
Now, there are lots
of different techniques that you can use
when you are carrying a newborn
which firstly gives them the opportunity to lift their head
as well as turn it to the left
or right to see what's happening in the world.
Now these include carrying your baby
so that their arms are slightly above their shoulder
and they have a limited head support
and they're having to lift their head against gravity.
Another technique is using the football hold
where they will need to lift their head
to look at the world that's around them.
Or you can use a baby carrier
or a baby wrap because when they're in these devices,
they are required to lift their head and they will turn them
to the left or the right to get comfortable.
And lastly, you can hold your baby
so that they're facing outwards
and you're providing support around their rib cage.
And the other hand is underneath their legs.
And this ensures that your back
is giving their whole body support
while they're having to hold their head upright
and look to the left and to the right.
When you do start to gain the confidence to try tummy time
with your little one again,
you can also roll them onto their tummy.
So instead of placing them straight
onto their tummy in tummy time,
you would roll them onto their tummy because this, again,
activates that neck righting reflex so that when they roll
onto their side, they're automatically
going to switch those neck muscles on to keep their head
in line with their body.
And they will maintain that
until they roll onto their tummy.
So how do you roll your newborn onto your tummy?
Well, if you're going to roll your baby
from their back through their left side, onto their tummy,
you would simply place them on their back on the floor.
Then you would use one hand
and you would grab their left leg and gently straighten it.
And with your other hand, you would place it
on their right thigh or their right hip.
Gently, you would roll that right leg over the top
of their body so that they come onto their tummy.
And once they're on their tummy
you are gonna need to reposition their hand to make sure
that it's no longer stuck underneath their body.
Pulling a newborn into sitting
is also another activity that parents
often get recommended to improve neck and head control.
But this is not an activity that I ever recommend
for newborns, particularly under the age of four months
for a number of reasons.
If you want to know exactly what these reasons are
then make sure you watch this video.
Remember to click the free PDF document
in the description box below, and I'll see you
next week where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.