Why Tummy Time Is Important For Your Baby?
We focus on a lot of things when it comes to baby care. We look with a microscope so that our baby gets the best in this whole world. One such thing is tummy time, many haven’t talked about it but it’s as important as his feeding.
Babies spent almost half of their day sleeping on their back, which gives little time for them to be lying on their tummy, thus we need to make sure we use the time we have efficiently. Since they lie on their back for so long, they have little practice lifting themselves using their neck, arms, back, and head. When you put your baby in his tummy, there might be certain reactions you might encounter, keeping these reactions side, the tummy time exercise should be a daily routine to strengthen their muscles.
Check out this youtube video by Nekola Amber, she has listed some amazing tummy time exercises for newborns!
It isn’t just putting your baby in his tummy, it’s way more than that. It’s a milestone that once achieved will pave the way for other milestones as well. Tummy time is crucial for strengthening the muscles of arms, back, leg, neck, and shoulder. This process also makes all the muscles work simultaneously. Daily tummy time exercise will help your kid to strengthen the neck, arch the back while developing the ability to move their face out of a mattress or a blanket if they accidentally roll to the stomach. Tummy time also encourages babies to practice pivoting and developing motor skills that often precede rolling over, scooting around, crawling, sitting up,
and eventually walking.
Apart from strengthening muscles, tummy time helps in other ways such as:
1. Reduce chances of a flat spot on heads
A flat head may lead to distortion in facial expressions, now one can overcome this via tummy time, which reduces the chances of forming a flat spot at the back of the head.
2. Motor skills and sensory development
It leads to babies learning to roll over, crawling, sitting up, and eventually walking. wow! 3. Muscle development
As said earlier, tummy time strengthens the neck, shoulders, arms, and upper back muscles that eventually enable kids to lift their head.
4. Stronger eye muscles
During the exercise, the baby tries to look here and there and the world around him attracts him. Hence when they look around and rotates his eyes this strengthens his eye muscles.
5. Exercise for the heart and maintaining weight
Since such exercises require more activity, it assists in more cardiovascular health and body mass index for babies.
There are things that you can buy to ace the tummy time. These are:
1. Brightly colored soft toys
2. Activity mat
3. baby blanket
4. tummy time pillow
5. cloth or picture book
Having known what all to do, the question arises, when is the best time to start the tummy time?
Credits- Hegg Health Center
As per experts, it’s believed that you can start the process after you’ve returned from the hospital. Though we need to keep in mind that the time varies with age. For a 0-month-old baby, the appropriate time is 1-5 minutes, 2-3 times a day, for a 1 month it’s up to 10 minutes, 2-3 times a day, and this increases gradually