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These tummy time tips are absolutely crucial for all new parents to know! You’ve probably heard the importance of tummy time, but these tips will ensure you can help your baby make the most of it and enjoy it.
Tummy time is a very important activity to do with your little one, starting right away! It can help build neck, shoulder, arm, and core muscles – all crucial in overall development! Especially crucial for rolling, crawling, and walking.
It also helps prevent them from developing a flat spot on their head. Essentially tummy time is your baby’s form of working out, and incorporating it regularly helps keep them strong and healthy!
You might be wondering exactly how to do it, how to help your baby enjoy it, and other helpful tips. My son is now 6 months old and we’ve been tummy timing on the regular, so I’ll be sharing all of my best hacks so you can help your baby be a tummy time pro!
13 Tummy Time Tips All New Parents Need to Know
1. It’s normal if they don’t love it at first
Tummy time can be really hard, especially when they are really young! Like I said, think of it as exercise for them, and exercise is not always easy or enjoyable. Takes time to build up those muscles!
Don’t feel like you need to push them through it if they are absolutely miserable. Keep trying, and with time, they will learn to love it, or at least tolerate it.
My son hated it at first, now at 6 months he would do tummy time all day if he could!
2. Take it slow
As baby’s are gaining their strength it’s okay to take it slow when it comes to tummy time. If they are getting really worked up, don’t feel like you have to hit the recommended number of minutes for their age every single time.
If it’s recommended they hit 30 minutes a day, it’s 100% okay to break that up in whatever way makes the most sense for your little one!
3. Use things to help prop them up
Before they can really hold their heads up on their own, propping them up can provide some support for them. It can help them see their toys, generally make things more enjoyable, and encourage them to use those neck muscles and strengthen them!
You’ll take the prop and place it underneath their arms. I’ve seen people often recommend a boppy for this, but if you don’t have one you can take a rolled up towel and place it under them in the same way. You also can drape them over your legs to provide that same kind of support.
The picture below shows how you would do so with a boppy, but a towel you would do the same way. Roll it up and place it in a C shape and place baby over it.
4. Time it
I used the Huckleberry app to track just about everything for my son, including tummy time sessions. They have a place to track exactly that! I used it at first just to mark that we were doing it regularly, and eventually moved to timing it.
It was super cool to see how he progressed with time! It also made it easy to see how much we hit each day as we broke it up into shorter sessions most days.
I’ve since stopped timing it or tracking it since he is doing it so often!
5. Find a toy they like
Toys can really help make tummy time SO much more enjoyable for your littles!
Here are some of my son’s favorites, linked and most pictured above:
- Oball
- Oball rattle
- Crinkle fox
- Smiley Mia
- Teether straws
- Light up & sound activity cube
- Baby phone
- Soft blocks
RELATED POST: The Absolute Best Toys for 4 Month Olds That They’ll Actually Play With
Pro tip – remember that interests can change with time. What our son loved at 3 months was completely different than what he loved at 5 months! Rotate them out and change them up, see what your baby likes. And if you’re like me wondering how could I know what my baby likes, they’ll tell you! I just keep offering the various toys we have and it’s clear what he’s interested in and what he couldn’t care less about 😂
Second pro tip – their favorite toy might not even be a toy at all. My baby loves playing with his bibs, burp cloths, an empty pill bottle (lol), wipes packaging, and various other things.
6. Grab a mirror
Babies looove to look at their reflections! Although I think for the first few months they just think they’re looking at another baby 😂 Either way, mirrors make for a fun tummy time experience for your little ones.
We have this mirror that is also a book for him to play with. It has contrast pictures (which is all they can see in the first few weeks) other fun pictures, a teether, and some tags. It has the ability to be propped up so your baby can easily look at whatever page it’s on!
7. Roll a ball
We use the Oball to roll in front of him side to side in order to encourage him to turn his head and track movement with his eyes (another important skill babies need to learn!) It also makes for a more engaging tummy time experience for them.
We don’t have this, but I’ve heard tons of great reviews on this tummy time crab that moves side to side and plays music.
8. Use a fun mat
It’s likely you’ve heard of the Fisher Price piano mat – it’s super popular for a reason. We have done TONS and tons of tummy time on this thing. From the hanging toys to the piano to the mat itself, it’s a major winner for babies having fun during tummy time. He loves all the songs that play – but they will get stuck in your head 😉
I’ve also heard of babies loving this water mat!
8. Go outside
If your baby likes going outside or you as the parent just need a change of scenery, take tummy time outside! Bring a mat or a blanket, grab some toys if your little one needs them, and go at it. They might not even need toys and just enjoy looking around.
10. Add in activities
There are SO many ways to get creative for tummy time. This is likely something more geared towards older babies, but you of course can try with younger ones too.
This was just my son playing with some crinkle paper that came in a package! Truly there are tons of activities and ways to mix things up for tummy time, I encourage you to take to Pinterest or Google for inspiration, but here are a few ideas below:
11. Take it on the go
If you have a stroller with a bassinet attachment, you can do periods of tummy time on the go!
I wish I had known this trick when my baby was younger, I think he would have loved it since he was a big fan of the stroller and being outdoors.
Just be sure to keep a close eye, as always.
12. On your chest counts
Tummy time is really any period of time where they aren’t on their back with their head flat on the ground, so it’s okay to get creative!
My baby loved to lay on our chest and get in his tummy time minutes that way, especially when he was little. Even if he was laying his head down, it was still a break from his head laying flat on the back of it.
13. Get on their level
If your body allows, get down on their level for some face to face tummy time. My baby loves to look, smile, and laugh with me, so doing this during tummy time makes him have a lot more fun! You also can sing to them, if that’s something your baby enjoys.
14. Wait before doing it after a feed, or be prepared with a burp cloth
Tummy time can definitely get messy. This is going to vary baby to baby, but it’s probably a good idea to wait some amount of time after a feed before doing tummy time. Even if you’ve waited, you still might want to place them on top of a burp cloth because spit up is completely normal!
Now you are all set with the *need to know* tummy time tips to make you and your baby tummy time pros. Enjoy it!
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