What is the importance of tummy time?
Following the ABCs of safe sleep, babies now spend a lot more time on their backs. Alone, on their Back, in a Crib. Tummy time has been designed to develop the muscles in your baby’s neck and back.
When to start tummy time?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends starting supervised tummy time from the first day you get home from the hospital. Practice tummy time 2-3 times a day for 3-5 minutes at a time and gradually increase as your baby gets stronger. Over the course of a few months, that time period and frequency of tummy time will increase for a total of an hour a day on their belly.
How to practice tummy time?
1.) Lay your baby on your chest or tummy. You can talk, sing or just stare lovingly into each other’s eyes. Tummy to tummy provides a good opportunity to do skin to skin as well.
2.) Lay your baby on their belly on a blanket and place a toy just out of reach so your baby can start to practice reaching.
3.) Place toys in a circle around your baby so they can refine reaching as well as develop muscles used for scooting, rolling over and crawling.
4.) An easy way to incorporate tummy time is to do 1 minute after diaper changes.
5.) A play mat is helpful as well as looking at high contrast books. The more entertainment, the better. Ever wonder why listening to music is so enjoyable while working out? It takes your mind off the hard work you’re putting in and the high contrast books, toys and conversation with your baby are doing the same thing.
6.) Placing baby belly down on your forearm or your lap is effective and can help with a gassy or fussy baby as well.
How does tummy time positively affect babies?
In June of 2020, the AAP released a systematic review which is just a fancy way of saying they did a study of a bunch of different studies. They dove deeper looking into the details of tummy time and its association with health outcomes.
Health outcomes that were tested include: gross motor and developmental skills, BMI-z score, prevention of brachycephaly, the ability to move while prone, supine, crawling and rolling. Others tests include social and cognitive domains, walking, standing, sitting, fine motor development and communication.
The health outcomes that were positively associated with tummy time included gross motor and developmental skills, a reduction in BMI-z score, prevention of bachycephaly, as well as the ability to move while prone, supine, crawling and rolling. There was no association found for fine motor development and communication. An inconclusive association is found with social and cognitive domains, plagiocephaly, walking, standing and sitting. Let’s focus on the positives and how tummy time is really helping our babies.
Gross motor and developmental skills
Examples of these skills include;
0-3 months; Raising head and chest while on stomach, open and shut hands, bring hands to mouth
3-6 months; Rolls both ways, reaches with either hand, transfer object from hand to hand, begins to pivot right and left while on belly, sits with support
6-9 months; Sits and plays with toys, can get into hands and knees position, can go from sitting to crawling position
9-12 months; Can get into sitting position without help, can pull to stand, takes steps holding onto furniture
BMI-z score
This score is a measurement of weight adjusted for age and sex. BMI-z scores correlates with growth chart percentiles.
Brachycephaly
Although both considered flat head syndrome, brachycephaly and plagiocephaly seem very similar, however, a few key differences separate them. Brachycephaly is seen around 8 weeks and is referred to a head shape that is disproportionately wide in comparison to depth. Plagiocephaly refers to an asymmetrical head shape with a flattening to one side of the head. Other associations with plagiocephaly include misaligned ears, facial asymmetry as well as torticollis (tightening of the neck muscle on one side).
Movement
Not only do babies strengthen their neck and back muscles, they are able to improve their movement. Tummy time assists with movement while prone (on their tummy), supine (on their back), crawling and rolling.
The importance of high contrast books
A newborn retina can distinguish between large contrasts of light and dark or black and white. This is why newborns view pastels as a blob of gray. As a baby is growing, its brain receives information from all five senses. All of this information causes nerve cells to multiply and create connections with other nerve cells.
Because vision is the most underdeveloped sense in newborns, it requires a bit more work to incorporate. Research has shown that black and white (or large contrasts) registers most efficiently on the retina and sends strong signals to the brain which equals more brain growth and speedier visual development.
High contrast books aid in attention span because babies focus on what is presented to them preventing them from becoming frustrated while on their tummy. Placing a book about 8-12 inches away from baby’s face can help baby focus. Since a baby eats and sleeps most of the time in the beginning, it’s beneficial to take advantage of quiet awake time as much as possible.