Today I’m continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge! The aim is to write a post for every day of the month except for Sundays, with each post representing a different letter of the alphabet. This year, since I’ve just become a mum for the first time, my theme is: ‘an A-Z of Newborn Care’. I’ll be talking about all the highs and lows of parenting, sharing things that have been useful for me and posting some cute pictures.
For the letter ‘T’ I have chosen to talk about Tummy Time. This is when you put baby down on their tummy on a blanket or mat on the floor and let them play. It’s now recommended that newborn babies have a little tummy time every day to help strengthen their muscles and to encourage them to try new skills such as rolling over.
Start off by doing just a couple of minutes of tummy time two or three times a day, then gradually build this up to about an hour a day by three months old. You should wait until your baby is happy and alert to do this and make sure the area around them is safe in case they do reach out for something or roll over. Never leave them unsupervised in this position and remember that it’s not safe for them to sleep on their front, so roll them onto their back if they doze off.
At first your baby might not do much other than stay curled up in a ball and wiggle about a bit. But after about three months they should be able to hold their head up and push up on the forearms-sort of like a baby push-up. My baby is almost four months old and she has just started to roll over.
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| Leona doing tummy time. |
This Babycentre article goes into more detail about the benefits of tummytime and ways you can encourage your baby to move. If your baby seems to dislike tummy time, try these 3 tips for making tummy time less miserable from Can Do Kiddo.
This video from Pathways.org is also really helpful.
Do/did you do tummy time with your baby? Any tips to share?
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