The Brooklyn baby bumper crop is booming and lots of parents have heard from their pediatricians about tummy time, but are not clear on how to do it or why. Let’s break it down so you can have a bright start with your baby!
Consider that humans are the only land mammals born who cannot stand right away. Our spines are not fully formed to be vertical either sitting or standing. The spine of baby is in a “c” curve from the fetal period of its growth. A baby’s brain and nervous system are also immature, as the brain will grow 85% of its full capacity in the first year after birth! Additionally a newborn has only one bone in the foot with the remainder being a cartilage-like substance that will develop into the other 25 foot bones.
Tummy time helps with the development of the natural spinal curves that are the skeletal architecture foundations for being a vertical human. These are the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar curves. We all want a good strong spine so we won’t have future back trouble, right?
Tummy time builds muscle strength and tone to help a baby find its physical center, balance, develop good tone for speech and language and stereoptic vision with the eyes. Remember that before birth, babies were floating in the womb without having to deal with gravity or using their sense of balance, or having to find an internal sense of center. Tummy time helps a baby find its feet pushing into the floor in order to develop the bones and align the legs from the externally rotated froggy leg position of the hips into alignment for crawling, sitting, and later standing on two feet.
Tummy time nurtures the “drive to thrive” with engagement of the eyes and ears reaching towards things that spark the baby’s curiosity. And tummy time gives important stimulation to the eyes for developing healthy vision essential for many cognitive abilities. Tummy time is crucial to attain rolling, creeping (military crawl), all fours crawling, and arrive in safe independent sitting. Crawling sets up numerous brain functions related to reading, math, memory, and much more. Tummy time is a whole body/mind/social-emotional phenomenon!
Many people think tummy time means placing a baby on its belly on a flat surface, such as the floor. While this is true, it is very hard for a newborn to do this as its head is much bigger than its bottom and the effort is a real struggle. The head takes up one third of the entire body for a baby. Tummy time can be done in gradations to help achieve success. And it is easy!
Here is how to begin…
Newborn Tummy Time: Heart to Heart Hold for the baby to push its chest and belly into a grown up. Standing or lying down both work. This includes wearing your baby face inward in a baby carrier too! (Facing out in a carrier until the baby is about 5-6 months is too much strain on the head, neck, and spine — so please be careful!)
Football Tummy Time Hold
Breastfeeding Pillow or Rolled Blanket Support Prop. Place your newborn on one of these props on baby’s chest and belly with arms over the prop. The feet will reach the floor instead of hovering off the floor, allowing the baby to push and engage in more tummy time. Use toys, a mirror, or some gently back massage to keep you baby engaged and happy.
Full on tummy time on a flat surface is better suited to babies 4 months and older. Your baby will let you know if it is happy here. Rolling is part of the process, so don’t worry if your baby does not stay put! At this stage they will be using their forearms to push as well as their hands. Babies love it when their grown ups join them in tummy time too.
You may even see your baby seemingly “fly” on its belly, really working those spinal curves!
Once your baby’s feet can find the ground on its own, it will push so strongly that it begins to move backwards on its belly, finding the feet articulation and strength. From here the baby will creep like a lizard, developing alignment in the leg and hip joints along with huge muscle tone in the lower and upper body. This move is so intense that the military and martial arts use it for strength building too!
Creeping really develops a sense of mastery as babies can now move to get what they are interested in and feel successful. It works the eyes, social development, fine motor and gross motor development, and more.
From here a baby will either learn to sit or crawl all by itself. Both are crucial for physical, mental, and emotional growth. Both of these milestones require a strong internal sense of balance and centering for a “righting” mechanism and they can occur interchangeably.
WARNING: It is not good to place your baby in unsupported sitting as finding this on baby’s own initiative means the spinal curvature is able to sustain the weight of the head. Placing a baby in unsupported vertical sitting can cause repetitive strain patterns in the spine leading to future back trouble. Most baby seats that force a baby into vertical do more harm than good. Look for seats and high chairs that recline for spinal support or use your lap.
Your baby will feel so strong and delighted when it arrives into its first vertical position of sitting all by itself. Enjoy the delight and your baby’s newfound sense of self-esteem!
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Photography by Angel Jiminez and M.Emily MacKenzie.
Ellynne Skove is a long time resident of Brooklyn, NY. She focuses on pre and perinatal psychology and health through her Bright Start Babies education and therapy practice. She teaches weekly GoGo Babies® Tummy Time, Baby Yoga, and Developmental Movement classes in Brooklyn as well as infant massage and 4th Trimester workshops.