Tummy time is very important for your little one, it helps to build their neck and shoulder muscles and allows infants to gain control of their head. If your child was full term and is healthy than once your child’s umbilical cord has fallen off and their belly button has healed, you can begin to do tummy time with them. Your baby can begin tummy time by being placed on their belly on a soft blanket for one to two minutes at a time, if your child seems uncomfortable or is crying than reduce the time anywhere between thirty seconds to one minute.

Understanding the importance of tummy time will have you stay on top of your child’s daily tummy time exercises. This will also help to prevent flat spots on the back of your child’s head and ensure that your child’s neck and shoulder muscles become stronger so your baby will be able to meet their milestones of sitting up, crawling and eventually walking.

It is important to understand that any change in an infant’s life should be done gradually. This way there will be less stress on their little bodies, and they can gently get used to a new situation. Tummy time can seem like a difficult task especially if your child is not enjoying being placed on their tummy, but keep going mama and know that you are doing what is best for your child, remember even in small amounts of time a few times a day progress is being made.