Tummy time, that dreaded but necessary activity that so many children struggle with. My daughter hated it (her low muscle tone did not help!) and I kind of dislike it too because of how it made her feel. However, it is so important that I tried to find ways to make it a bit enjoyable for her. There were some tummy time toys that made it that way!
Why is tummy time so important?
Tummy time is important for infants because it offers several developmental benefits. Some of these are:
Strengthens muscles: When babies spend time on their tummies, they engage and strengthen the muscles in their neck, shoulders, arms, and core. This helps them develop the strength and control to achieve important motor milestones like rolling, sitting, crawling, and eventually walking.
Develops motor skills: Tummy time provides an opportunity for babies to practice and refine their motor skills. By lifting their heads, pushing up with their arms, and rolling over, babies develop coordination, balance, and spatial awareness.
Supports visual development: During tummy time, babies have the chance to look around and visually explore their environment. This stimulates their visual development, eye-tracking skills, depth perception, and hand-eye coordination.
Prevents flat head spots: It helps reduce the risk of flat spots on the back of a head. Anna had one because she spent prolonged periods lying on her back. Now that she is able sot sit, it is resolving.
With my first son I never stopped to think about what muscles were involved in his gross motor milestones. Everything seemed to happen more naturally. As my daughter has low muscle tone, I realised what is needed in each of the positions that we practise.
For example, we are now at the stage of trying to crawl and Anna’s arms are not that strong. Arms are key for crawling, and tummy time helps them make stronger. It also helps to make the neck stronger which helps with lifting the head and rolling over, and with the core, which is important for sitting up.
What to do when they really struggle?
Apart from the usual advice to start doing it for short times and then increase it gradually, these are toys that helped my daughter make progress. Not all of them are specifically tummy time toys, so they can be used once over this stage too.
Placing her on an incline
The tummy time pillow helped with being able to stay more time on her tummy and lifting her head. As it provides support on their chest and back, it makes tummy time easier for them. It will also get them ready to do it directly on the floor.
I used was a roller pillow. Initially she was able to be 2 to 3 minutes lifting her head on it, which was a lot more than she could do directly on the floor.
I can’t find it online anymore, but this is a similar one on Amazon.
For kids that don’t have much head control yet, I have seen Anna’s physiotherapist using a soft play wedge. The child is placed with their chest on the top of the wedge and there they can practise their head control and work on strengthening their neck.
We have a soft play wedge at home, which we have used to do other exercises to help Anna to learn to crawl.
Putting toys in front of her
The type of toys depends on your child’s preferences but there were 2 that left Anna a bit hypnotised. Just the perfect focus needed to practise 😊
Spinning toy: the least fun part was that I had to be pressing the top button for the toy to spin again and again. Although it was worth it after seeing how much Anna enjoyed looking at it.
Baby mirror: I don’t think that Anna was yet able to recognise herself as the reflection in the mirror, but she was really fascinated by it.
Are there other activities that can be done as a substitution for tummy time?
This is something that I asked Anna’s physiotherapist several times and I still do when there are things that Anna really struggles with (although her biggest struggle of all was tummy time). She has always made it very clear that tummy time is essential and can’t be skipped. However I found the video below with exercises that can be done that will help with head control for babies that really hate tummy time. They will help make it time easier, but they are not a substitution of it.
Personally I found tummy time and learning to roll over and back, the hardest of all. Maybe it is because when they are so little and have not really made any big noticeable progress, it is hard to stop worrying about what they will be able to do and it is hard to see them struggle. But, even if it is slower, they do make progress and things do get easier. Everything they achieve, even if little, it is a new won battle, and the victory feels so good.
