Tummy time? Is it REALLY necessary? My opinion, after my experiment, no. And here is why:
When I had Amélie, nearly seven years ago, it was ingrained into my brain that "tummy time" is a must! Now, for those of you without kids, here is what tummy time is -
"Tummy time is an American colloquial term used to encourage parents to ensure their babies spend time on their stomachs. Babies may benefit from spending time on their stomachs. It may help strengthen their posterior neck muscles and reach milestones like crawling faster. Though babies who do not spend time on their stomachs eventually catch up physically, physical therapists say the first few months of life are an important time for babies to start to become aware of their bodies and begin to learn movement and balance.
In 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended babies sleep on their backs to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Although the rate of SIDS decreased by 50% since the Back to Sleep campaign started in 1994, an unintended consequence was that babies missed out on the twelve or so hours they used to spend in the prone position which helps strengthen neck and back muscles. As a result of the Back to Sleep Campaign there was a significant rise in cases of plagiocephaly in infants; particularly positional plagiocephaly. Parents are now being encouraged to ensure their babies receive tummy time while they are awake in order to counter this." - wikipedia
So, wanting to be the best mom in the world, I forced my baby, from about a month old, to lie on her stomach several times a day every day. Amélie, as most babies do, hated it. She would scream and cry, but the doctor told me to let her cry it out. Well, by two months, she was hold up her head, and by month three, she was rolling off my bed - oops.
Now, several years later, I have another little one. Mckenna absolutely despises tummy time and screams until she is no longer on her tummy. Not only does she scream, but since she has GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), she throws up EVERY TIME she is put on her tummy. I pulled through for several months and at about 3.5 months, she rolled onto her back all by herself - took longer than her sister, but all babies develop differently. Now, fast forward to 5 months...still not rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy - a complete roll. She now gets placed on her tummy and almost immediately rolls onto her back and stays. This happens every time. Research time - I love you Google.com
I found several articles talking about how tummy time can actually do more harm than good. Some babies had spinal problems, others had neck problems. Of course the articles spoke about how to gain neck and spinal strength and it made sense. Put your baby on their tummies on you! They will lift their heads! Thinking back, the first time either one of my girls lifted their heads, they were ON ME, not on a mat on the floor. Granted, there were more articles that promoted tummy time, but was there even a chance I could be potentially harming my child? Yes.
Then, I saw this video and I thought, "let's try this for just a week. No tummy time."
Watch it. It is amazing how the baby figures out rolling all by herself - NO TUMMY TIME!
I started by thinking, "How could I encourage Mckenna to roll from her back to her tummy? A toy? No. She isn't interested that much in toys. What encourages her most? Me." It was me! I would be the motivation. So, I put Mckenna on her back on our hard floor, no blankets under her, nothing, and sat about a foot away. I encouraged her to come to me. Smiling, laughing, talking to her, I even cheered to make her motivated. I would leave her there until she got bored. Sometimes it was only a couple of minutes. But I did this for several days, 3 or four times a day. Guess what? Four days. It took Mckenna four days to do a complete roll.
Now people will argue that tummy time gives a baby stronger stomach muscles. But think about it. When you want to strengthen your abs, do you lie on your stomach and flop around with your face in the floor or do you lie on your back and do crunches?
Exactly.
So, at my next well baby appointment when the doctor asks if I am doing tummy time with Mckenna, I am going to proudly say, "NO.
