- In this video I'm going to share everything you need to know
about tummy time for your newborn.
Yes newborn, this is something that should start from birth.
As long as your baby was born full term
and with no medical complications.
And continue right up until your little one starts to crawl.
I'm also going to answer some of the most common questions
parents have when starting tummy to time.
Like how long do you do it for?
What do you do if the umbilical cord is still attached?
How long do you wait after a feed, and more?
One thing you might not realize about tummy time
is that this essential activity does so much more
for your baby's development
than just strengthening the muscles in their neck,
shoulders, arms, back, and legs.
It also helps to develop your baby's visual skills,
including depth perception.
It helps to open up their hand
and get that thumb out of their palm.
It helps to prevent positional conditions,
such as positional plagiocephaly
and positional torticollis.
And it also helps to lengthen and strengthen the muscles
on the front of their body, including their tummy muscles,
and their hip muscles and these muscles are required
for your baby to achieve important developmental milestones,
such as rolling, sitting up, crawling, and walking.
Now, if you want to know when babies
typically reach these important milestones
make sure you get my free developmental checklist,
which you can find in the description box below
by clicking the link.
The biggest challenge parents face when starting tummy time
with a newborn is their a little one often gets upset
as soon as they try to do it.
Seeing your little one distressed is always hard
and that often leads to parents giving up on tummy time
or doing it less often than they should.
Here's how to make it more manageable for a newborn.
First of all, don't worry about trying to make
your little one do tummy time for long periods of time.
Initially you are just aiming for one to two minutes
every wake period during the day, that's it.
Also, if the umbilical cord is still attached
you don't need to be concerned,
because the tummy time positions we use
in that newborn phase actually don't apply any pressure
to that umbilical cord
so it won't cause them any discomfort.
The key with tummy time is that your baby
is positioned on their tummy so that they have to work
against gravity to lift their head
by turning on their extensor muscles.
But that does not mean they need to be lying
directly on the floor.
In fact, this position is often way too hard for a newborn
and that is what leads them
to becoming upset and distressed.
What you want to do instead is start with something
much simpler and gradually work up to the point
where your little one will be able to do tummy time
lying directly on the floor.
So in the first month of your baby's life
you will actually be doing tummy time on your chest,
when you are holding them in the football hold,
over your lap and on a Swiss ball.
And at one month of age you might start
to introduce tummy time lying on the floor,
but that is with a Boppy pillow or a rolled up towel.
And by two months of age, they'll be doing
most of their tummy time lying on the floor.
We also want to start off with really short bursts
of tummy time in these positions.
So initially you might only do a few seconds
and the next time you do it with your little one
you might add on a few seconds.
And then you'll gradually increase the amount of time
that your little one is in this position.
By three months of age, what you're aiming for,
is around 60 minutes of tummy time
over the whole course of the day.
In addition to starting slowly you can also use toys
to make tummy time more enjoyable for your little one.
And the best toy is actually going to be you.
So in that newborn phase
when you're doing that chest to chest tummy time
you would be looking at your baby and singing to them
or talking to them or pulling faces.
And then when they're doing tummy time
directly on the floor,
you'd be lying directly opposite them
and there you can sing or just generally talk to them.
You can also use lots of other toys,
like a non breakable mirror.
And in the newborn phase
you'll place that mirror flat on the floor
so that your little one would be able to see their face,
because they're not yet able to lift it very well.
And once they can lift it well that's when you be placing it
directly in front of your little one.
You can also use toys that light up or play music,
because they're extremely entertaining.
Or you can use a book
and you can just prop the board book open,
so your little one can look at it.
When starting tummy time with the newborn
parents often wonder how long they should wait
following a feed before they do tummy time.
And the answer is that really depends on your little one.
If your little one does spit up,
which is very common in that newborn phase,
but they're distressed when they spit up
or you are distressed by the spitting up,
then you can do one of two things.
If your little one wakes and they're not too ravenous,
then you can try and do tummy time before the feed.
Or you can do a feed if your little one
is really, really hungry and then wait 20 to 30 minutes
following your feed.
But do be aware that your little one
is going to be likely to spit up, if that's what they do,
when they are doing tummy time following a feed,
because they have a really floppy sphincter,
it's quite immature,
between their esophagus and their tummy.
So the liquid does tend to come back out.
And when you're applying pressure to that full tummy
it's going to help that liquid flow out.
So using a recline position, so that chest to chest position
is going to make it more likely
that the liquid would stay inside.
Now, some babies will still find tummy time upsetting.
So to make sure you know what to do in that situation,
click here and watch this video next.
Thanks for watching, make sure you click
on that free PDF document in the description box below.
And I'll see you next week
where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.
(soothing music)