Tummy time for newborns can be challenging for any new parent.

There are a ton of questions that pop up like - when should I start tummy time? How long should I do it for? How often? What if my baby gets upset? And the list goes on.

Sadly, sometimes the challenges that arise when parents first attempt to do tummy time exercises with their newborn lead to them avoiding tummy time or giving up completely.

However this often leads to developmental delays, and potentially other issues like plagiocephaly and torticollis.

But newborn tummy time doesn't have to be unpleasant for you and your little one! In this article you'll learn when to start tummy time with your baby, how often to do it for and for how long, plus what to do when you baby gets upset when you attempt tummy time.

And there's also a lot more.

I created this article to be your guide to tummy time for your baby.

Tummy Time for Newborns - What Every Parent Needs to Know

When should you start tummy time?

In this article I'm going to share everything you need to know about tummy time for your newborn.

Yes newborn, this is something that should start from birth.

As long as your baby was born full term and with no medical complications.

And continue right up until your little one starts to crawl.

I'm also going to answer some of the most common questions parents have when starting tummy to time.

Benefits of tummy time (so much more than just strengthening the back muscles)

Like how long do you do it for? What do you do if the umbilical cord is still attached? How long do you wait after a feed, and more? One thing you might not realize about tummy time is that this essential activity does so much more for your baby's development than just strengthening the muscles in their neck, shoulders, arms, back, and legs.

It also helps to develop your baby's visual skills, including depth perception.

It helps to open up their hand and get that thumb out of their palm.

It helps to prevent positional conditions, such as positional plagiocephaly and positional torticollis.

And it also helps to lengthen and strengthen the muscles on the front of their body, including their tummy muscles, and their hip muscles and these muscles are required for your baby to achieve important developmental milestones, such as rolling, sitting up, crawling, and walking.

How long should you do tummy time for?

The biggest challenge parents face when starting tummy time with a newborn is their a little one often gets upset as soon as they try to do it.

Seeing your little one distressed is always hard and that often leads to parents giving up on tummy time or doing it less often than they should.

Here's how to make it more manageable for a newborn.

First of all, don't worry about trying to make your little one do tummy time for long periods of time.

Initially you are just aiming for one to two minutes every wake period during the day, that's it.

What if the umbilical cord is still attached?

Also, if the umbilical cord is still attached you don't need to be concerned, because the tummy time positions we use in that newborn phase actually don't apply any pressure to that umbilical cord so it won't cause them any discomfort.

How to do tummy time with a newborn

The key with tummy time is that your baby is positioned on their tummy so that they have to work against gravity to lift their head by turning on their extensor muscles.

But that does not mean they need to be lying directly on the floor.

In fact, this position is often way too hard for a newborn and that is what leads them to becoming upset and distressed.

What you want to do instead is start with something much simpler and gradually work up to the point where your little one will be able to do tummy time lying directly on the floor.

So in the first month of your baby's life you will actually be doing tummy time on your chest, when you are holding them in the football hold, over your lap and on a Swiss ball.

And at one month of age you might start to introduce tummy time lying on the floor, but that is with a Boppy pillow or a rolled up towel.

And by two months of age, they'll be doing most of their tummy time lying on the floor.

The key when starting out

We also want to start off with really short bursts of tummy time in these positions.

So initially you might only do a few seconds and the next time you do it with your little one you might add on a few seconds.

And then you'll gradually increase the amount of time that your little one is in this position.

By three months of age, what you're aiming for, is around 60 minutes of tummy time over the whole course of the day.

Use toys and props to make tummy time enjoyable

In addition to starting slowly you can also use toys to make tummy time more enjoyable for your little one.

And the best toy is actually going to be you.

So in that newborn phase when you're doing that chest to chest tummy time you would be looking at your baby and singing to them or talking to them or pulling faces.

And then when they're doing tummy time directly on the floor, you'd be lying directly opposite them and there you can sing or just generally talk to them.

You can also use lots of other toys, like a non breakable mirror.

And in the newborn phase you'll place that mirror flat on the floor so that your little one would be able to see their face, because they're not yet able to lift it very well.

And once they can lift it well that's when you be placing it directly in front of your little one.

You can also use toys that light up or play music, because they're extremely entertaining.

Or you can use a book and you can just prop the board book open, so your little one can look at it.

Should you do tummy time before or after a feed?

When starting tummy time with the newborn parents often wonder how long they should wait following a feed before they do tummy time.

And the answer is that really depends on your little one.

If your little one does spit up, which is very common in that newborn phase, but they're distressed when they spit up or you are distressed by the spitting up, then you can do one of two things.

If your little one wakes and they're not too ravenous, then you can try and do tummy time before the feed.

Or you can do a feed if your little one is really, really hungry and then wait 20 to 30 minutes following your feed.

But do be aware that your little one is going to be likely to spit up, if that's what they do, when they are doing tummy time following a feed, because they have a really floppy sphincter, it's quite immature, between their esophagus and their tummy.

So the liquid does tend to come back out.

And when you're applying pressure to that full tummy it's going to help that liquid flow out.

So using a recline position, so that chest to chest position is going to make it more likely that the liquid would stay inside.

Now, some babies will still find tummy time upsetting.

So to make sure you know what to do in that situation, click here and watch this article next.

And I'll see you next week where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.

Baby Development