Sorry my TAT-tuesdays is 1 day late already 1 week into it, but here it is!
OK so Tummy TIme Tips! Can you tell I felt like using a little alliteration today? 🙂
I see a lot of patients with torticollis as well as patients whose parents say that their children hate tummy time. There may be a few reasons your child may hate tummy time.
1- they may be teething, and being face down really puts pressure on your head, and I’d rather lie on my back if I had a toothe-ache thank you very much 🙂
2-they may not be strong enough to hold their heads up so once they feel the burn of those muscles they are over tummy time haha.
I can’t really help the pain in problem #1, but I can provide an alternative to straight tummy time.
One way you can ease your child into tummy time is by having them be on their tummy on an exercise ball.
This can do 2 things:
1- Takes your child’s face higher off the floor so they don’t feel claustrophobic and so they can see more of the world around them if they can’t quite hold their head up all the way.
2- It makes tummy time more fun, since now they are on something shiny, squishy, and bouncy. Andddd they’re allowed to hit it and it can act like a drum 🙂
I have parents start with their child slightly tilted backwards on the ball so their more in a nearly standing position. This way, they are still on their tummy, but don’t have to work so hard to hold their head up. In this position you can also roll the ball side to side to work on head control. As your baby gets stronger then you can gradually put them on the top of the ball and tilt in all directions.
I also use the ball for sitting balance and trunk control in the same manner as above. Bouncing and moving the ball around really helps to improve trunk and head control.
Categories: Tips and Tricks Tuesdays
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Thank you! let me know if there’s any content you’d like me to add 🙂
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Hello
We struggled with our lo up until now with EXTREME feeding and spit up issues (low weight gain) so tummy time was neglected. Now we are over our three month hump and everything is getting better.
Any tummy time suggestions? I see exercise ball suggestion…
thank you
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