Is Tummy Time still "in". None of the parenting magazines I have at the moment mention this.

I think so. But I am also a firm believer in just laying out a blanket in the floor even at a young age. This way they can look around, get curious and have the initative to explore. :wink: We did this more so with our second than with our first. He seems to be an early learner on all physical accounts.

I bet you are getting really excited about the little one approaching, eh? :D

I didn't push tummy time really because I kind of feel that its better to let it happen on its own, rather than force tummy time when they aren;t ready. During the day I would lay him on his back on a blanket and just leave him be to reach for toys or play with his hands and feet. Then at around 3 or 4 months he started rolling over on his own, and enjoyed every minute of it once he got past the initial "What the hack did I just do?"

I am a big advocate of tummy time. I don't feel we need to "push" but we should introduce it immediately and slowly increase the time our children spend of their tummys.

The reason I feel so strongly about this is that my sons PT told me that the rates of torticollis and positional plagiocephaly have risen since the back to sleep campaign began.

Torticollis - wry neck, basically a kink in the neck or the muscles have been injured and cause the neck to twist, there are many different kinds

Plagiocephaly - a deformation of the skull.

My DS#1 was born with a type of plagiocephaly and with torticollis in his case both happened in utero but they can happen after birth as well.

I now have DS#2 do tummy time everyday because I do not want to have to deal with these things again.

Of course there are other factors and tummy time is not the only answer to prevention, but you know what they say one ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure.

Oh, we've been into tummy time from day 1 with Tory.

Because 'they' say to put the baby on her back to sleep now (used to be on the tummy, but 'they' changed their minds about that, lol), you run the risk of giving your baby a flat spot on the back of their head. A friend's baby had to be fitted with a helmet because of it. This article http://www.justmommies.com/articles/articles5.shtml explains it much better than I can.

My friend's experience with plagiocephaly made me much more aware of giving Tory daily tummy time, at least 5 minutes, although she worked her way up to about half an hour at a time, a couple of times a day. And I've noticed that she's a bit more mobile than her sister was at this stage. I don't know if it's just that they're two individuals with individual development or if the TT might have something to do with it. Probably a bit of both...

See I've always wondered if flat heads could be the exaserbated by spending too much time in an infant seat or swing... just my own curiosity.

Flat head/plagiocephaly can be caused by several things too much time in infant seats/swings can be part of it, it can be congential or caused in utero but there has been a marked increase since the back to sleep campaign. Tummy time along with restricted use of seats swings ect. plus making sure your chid is looking in different directions when you lay them down all help in prevention.

I noticed a lot of you mention tummy time pertaining to "rolling over" to my understanding it's to do with neck and upper body strength development. My last child health nurse only told me to do it for a very limited time.

I totally know where the comments on the "flat head" are coming from as because my twins were pre-term and we were expected to lay them side or back, DD developed a GUMBY HEAD and it wasn't due to us being extreme about one side preference, it just happened. We had to use all these methods to get her right again and if we didn't suceed we were going to have to take her to physio. To be fair though, her head was softer than a full term baby and it's quite common for pre-termies to have missshapen heads. We did everything the child nurse told us to do and DD has a normal head to this day :wink:

I do agree with not making the baby do something it doesn't like though. I mean I was so eager to try baby massage only to find the twins both HATED it. (All my parenting magazines were advocating it)

I'm looking back and am thinking I should have worded myself better; when I was saying not to "force" tummy time I was specifically referring to when baby clearly doesn't like it, becuase he may not be ready. If baby is comfortable with it then I agree it is fine. I hope I didn't come across as being critical, and if I did then I am very sorry :oops: !

of course you didn't come across as critical at all! :D You made a very valid point. Sometimes babies DON'T LIKE the current method of mothering :wink: it's true

[balloons]

I didn't think you were critical and I hope I didn't come across to harshly either. I am just very passionate about this subject because I prefer anyone I know not have to go through the DR's appointments and PT that we had to, so I tend to be a tummy time zealot at times. :roll:

I really don't think there is anyone on CM with a mean bone in their body and we can all be zealous about certain issues... Pretty much everything just needs to be taken with "everyone is so different, doesn't make them wrong" in mind.

I didn't think you sounded like a zealot BTW [angel] :wink: Like Cristina everything you said was extremely valid.

It's very healthy to get everyones perspective it makes for a great balance :wink:

I just had to put in my opinion here. I personally think Tummy Time is very important. I didn't know how important until we had to deal with positional plagiocephaly. My son had to wear a corrective helmet for 3 months because of this. He absolutely hated Tummy Time and I should have started it earlier. Anyway, just my opinion. Also, my son had torticollis and preferred to look to one side from day one, so that probably had alot to do with the plagiocephaly, but his ped stressed Tummy Time alot. Like I said, he hated it, so I limited the amount of time on his tummy.

Something that I don't think anyone mentioned was the thought of using a Boppy to get that tummy time. I like that idea cuz it lifts the baby up a little more so the baby doesn't spend the entire 5 min with his face in the blanket (which my son did...he couldn't figure out that turning his head would be better. LOL) And then if he's on the Boppy, I can put toys in front of him and give him something to look at and reach for.
I like doing tummy time this way better that flat on the blanket.

(but btw, my son has reflux and I'm always afraid of him vomiting especially when I put him on his tummy flat and I think elevated slightly on a Boppy helps.)

I think the Boppy is an excellent idea. I wish I had thought to have one.

Oh yeah! I forgot all about Boppy!