5 Reasons Tummy Time is Essential for Your Baby

Building head control.

• The best way to build strength for holding the head up while supported upright is to start with tummy time. Your baby has to lift their head up and look left and right to engage with their toys and environment, which builds up the strength and endurance of their neck muscles.

Maintaining a round head shape.

• Your baby's skull is malleable until about 2 years old. Which means the head shape can change, for better or worse, during this time. Some babies are born with extra flatness on their skulls from positioning in the womb. They may require remolding with a "helmet", which can be done up until that 2 year old mark. Some babies can acquire that flatness by spending too much time on their backs or with their head turned to one side. Tummy time alleviates the pressure on the skull, which can prevent flat areas from developing.

Stretching out flexor muscles.

• Your baby has spent 9 months in the womb with increasingly less space. That means they were curled up with everything tucked in tight. Tummy time provides a stretch to those muscles that were in a shortened position. The front of the hips, the shoulders, and the neck all benefit from the stretch. It can help prevent asymmetries with infants who show a preference to look one direction.

Weight bearing through hands.

• This is the position infants get the most practice putting weight through their hands. Once they have head control, there are other positioning strategies to incorporate weight bearing through the hands. Early tummy time is crucial to build the strength in your baby's hands and arms, which comes in handy for "fine" motor skills (drawing, writing, cutting, etc), crawling, catching themselves with falls, and climbing.

Providing gas relief.

• The gentle pressure as well as the movement encouraged in the position help to move and break up gas bubbles.