When did you start baby "tummy time"?

[etwahl]

I know tummy time is important, so I was wondering how early you started it, right away? Also, what are some things you did for tummy time? We have one of those activity mats, so I'm assuming that will be a good place to try it out, although we do have hardwood floors, so I don't know if it will be soft enough on the hardwood. Also, how long did you do tummy time at one time? When did you do it so that they weren't puking up their food? Any other info I need to know about this?

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[parkersmama]

Tummy time is pretty pointless until they start getting a little bit of head control. For some babies this is practically right away and for others it's a month or two. You'll know when you are holding your baby upright and they can *sort of* hold up their own head and don't need your hand for as much support. At that point, we generally started giving them a little tummy time on the floor. I didn't have a playmat so we just put them on a quilt or blanket on the floor and put a feel appealing toys around to look at and reach for. For most babies I'd say 10 to 15 minutes at a time (a couple of times a day maybe) is enough. Some babies really, really hate tummy time but the docs say it's important and I've seen that to be true. We have some friends with a dd the same age as Parker and when she was a baby she hated to be on her tummy and complained so much about it that they didn't do it. She was about 5 months old before she could hold her head up good and didn't learn to sit until about 9 months or so. I think the tummy time helps with those things. As far as spitting up, I never had a problem with them spitting up when on their tummies. I did find, though, that especially with my first son it was important to keep him mostly upright or on his tummy right after a feeding or he would get the hiccups and spit up a fairly large quantity.

Denise
mom to:
Parker, 9/1/1997
Wesley, 3/9/2000
and #3 (a girl!) due 4/29/2003

[egoldber]

The tell you to start right away, but it is hard until they get at least a smidge of head control. I also have hardwood floors and I just put her on a blanket on the floor. I actually mainly used the Gymini for tummy time. I didn't bother with the toy bars, I just used the mat, since it is fairly padded.

My ped said to do tummy time 10 minutes or so 3-4 times a day, or as much as your baby would stand. I just did it whenever she seemed awake enough and I thought about it. :) I didn't plan it wround feedings. While Sarah was a big spitter when she burped, she didn't spit up much at other times.

HTH,

[C99]

Nate's 1-month today and my ped just recommended (yesterday) putting him on his tummy to practice head control.

HTH

[Momof3Labs]

We were told to start right away, and Colin loved tummy time IF we did it on our tummies. That is, we laid on the bed on our backs and put him on his tummy on our chest - so he could look at our faces. He LOVED that! (Just make sure that you are nowhere near the edge of the bed.) As a result, Colin has had amazing head and shoulder strength - always way ahead of schedule.

Sometimes he spit up on us, but it was no big deal - not enough to cause a flood or anything. When he was going through his spitty period, we would just put a cloth diaper under his face and change it when he spit up.

[brubeck]

We have mirrored closet doors in our house. The mirrors go down to the floor. Both my babies LOVE(D) being put on a blanket on the floor next to the mirror (tummy or back). When I did/do tummy time next to the mirror the baby is entranced looking at itself and is more occupied and comfortable on the tummy.

When my daughter got older (3 months or so) I think this mirror trick helped her learn to roll over. She would watch herself in the mirror as she practiced. I have pictures and video of this, it is priceless!

[juliasdad]

I think we started doing tummy time at 2 weeks or so, but that wasn't really a "real" tummy time; just an occasional 30-second down to get her used to that position. Real tummy time, for any extended time, began at around 6 weeks or so.

We used her activity mat on the floor, which has some visual interest and some textural things to play with. Until recently (5 months?), she never really seemed to really like tummy time; we let her frustration level govern how long we'd leave her down.

Also, we found that we couldn't do it soon after feeding; the position, or pressure on her tummy, made her likely to spit up too much of her milk. We still generally wait 30 minutes at least.

-dan