The Benefits of Tummy Time for Babies: Tips and Activities

This guide is not intended to be medical advice; always consult with your healthcare provider before making any adjustments to your childcare routine.

As adults, we rarely give much attention to the time we spend on our stomachs—if anything, it’s a reward for a long day spent on our feet. But for newborn babies, who are just getting used to their bodies, tummy time is a crucial part of spurring physical and psychological growth.

Experts generally recommend infants start spending time off their backs as early as possible—even the first day you’re home from the delivery ward. Tummy time helps foster muscle strength, motor skills, and the bold sense of adventure your little one will need to take on the world on all fours (and later, two legs!).

Understanding the benefits and safety guidelines of tummy time and tummy time activities is key for new parents who are eager to kick-start their baby’s development. Below, find out how this pediatrician-approved practice benefits babies in their first year, nurturing the bond you share along with their physical growth. For parents navigating the early stages of pregnancy and pondering future activities, traveling while pregnant offers insights into safe journeys during this special time.

5 Tummy Time Benefits for Your Baby (and Your Bond)

Tummy time’s benefits crawl the gamut of infants’ physical health as well as the psychological bond they share with caregivers. Each tummy time session is associated with these major child development benefits:

1. Supports physical strength – Your baby will make their first attempts to crawl around 7 months. Before then, tummy time helps them develop the strength and coordination skills that will take them there. Tummy time is particularly excellent for developing back, shoulder, neck, and arm strength.
2. Fosters motor skills – While they’re on their stomachs, babies are challenged to refine their motor skills in addition to physical strength. These early skills provide the foundation for all of the ambulation they’ll do in the future—whether crawling, scooting, rolling over, and later, walking!
3. Promotes a healthy skull – Pediatricians and infant development experts emphasize the importance of tummy time for preventing skull deformities in babies, who still have pliable skulls after birth. By promoting neck rotation and reducing time spent in a supine position, tummy time helps reduce their chances of developing plagiocephaly, a term for a flattened or misshapen skull.
4. Lets them explore safely – By encouraging your baby to keep your baby’s head lifted, tummy time prompts infants to visually explore their environment from a different perspective. Floor play helps cultivate their spatial awareness and proprioception, giving them a fresh perspective on depth, distance, people, and objects.
5. Gives you time and space to bond – Tummy time is just one way to build an opportunity to connect into your shared routine. By hunkering down with them, responding to their cues, making eye contact, and cheering them on, you’ll enhance the connection between you and your little one.

As your baby grows, understanding how many calories does a baby needs becomes another aspect of ensuring their healthy development. And speaking of growth and development, have you wondered when can babies have water? During this period of time, their nutritional needs evolve as well, leading to questions like when can babies have Pedialyte, especially in ensuring hydration and health. It’s crucial to know for their health as they grow.

Tummy Time Tips, Best Practices, and Growth Milestones

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) you can start incorporating a version of tummy time right after your newborn’s arrival.

At this stage, be sure to keep them on your lap while they’re flipped over, with sessions lasting no more than 5 minutes. By as young as 7 weeks, you can migrate to the floor. You may want to keep them on a soft surface, like a rug or a towel. Aim to keep them on their tummies—close to you and safely monitored—for up to a half hour. Just be sure to ensure their face is never on the ground, which can put your baby at risk of suffocation.

Beyond their first months after birth, you can try plotting their progress along the following milestones:

• 2 to 4 months – Once they’ve gotten the hang of things on your lap, you may notice a significant increase in your baby’s neck muscles, shoulder muscles, and core strength. They may be able to keep your baby’s head lifted for longer. Just be sure to keep them comfortable on a soft surface on the floor while keeping a close eye on them during sessions.
• 4 to 6 months – Around this time, many babies start to take observable pleasure in their tummy experiences—this is when play enters the picture! Around this stage, you’ll continue to watch them closely, but you can give them a degree more autonomy. You may even introduce soft toys and playthings to keep them entertained and exploring.
• 6 months and beyond – At half a year old, your baby will likely be able to spend a whole hour in tummy time—remember, they’re right around the cusp of crawling! While you’ll still want to watch them closely, you’ll be amazed by the independence they’re developing. Pretty soon, they’ll be crawling solo, toddling, and walking free.

A Word on Tummy Time Safety

If there’s one major takeaway from learning about tummy time, it’s that the practice is just that: a time-bound activity.

While important for infant growth, even supervised tummy time shouldn’t last more than an hour. Extended tummy time sessions can:

• Be very uncomfortable for infants
• Lead to physical exhaustion
• Cause emotional distress for infants

Sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDs, exhibits why babies shouldn’t spend too much time on their backs. Though the cause of SIDs is obscure in some cases, it’s thought to be caused by sleep apnea—the cessation of breathing during sleep. This is significantly likelier if your baby falls asleep on their stomach or side.

In parallel to understanding tummy time, getting to know newborn sleep patterns can greatly assist in creating a nurturing environment for sleep and growth. This journey of growth and learning includes understanding when do babies sleep through the night, a milestone eagerly awaited by many parents.

How to Incorporate Tummy Time As a New Parent

Experts say that tummy time can help accelerate a baby’s path to key milestones like crawling and walking, but that doesn’t always mean the road to get there is easy!

Plenty of infants struggle to get comfortable during their time on the floor. Sometimes, tummy time can cause digestive upset, like gas or spit up. They’re also still developing their sense of vision, touch, and space—and getting acquainted with the world in this new position can feel intimidating!

By following these tips and guidelines, you’ll help them make new strides as comfortably and confidently as possible while reinforcing the special bond you share.

Choose The Right Time for Them

Though it may be old hat to you, remember that tummy time is a brand-new experience for babies at first!

When introducing this ritual, aim to choose a time in their day when they tend to be most at ease and unfussy. Some pediatricians recommend after a nap or a diaper change, though the appropriate time will be entirely personal to your baby.

Remember That Their Development Is Unique

While there are some benchmark milestones to reach, every baby grows by the beat of their own drum. At first, you may find that your baby loathes their first few sessions spent on their stomachs—and this is normal!

Tummy time can put a lot of pressure on babies’ anatomy, in addition to being a new experience. Time on the floor can take some getting used to, so try to exercise patience as they become more comfortable. Before you know it, they may be scrambling off your lap to explore the surroundings from their stomach.

Prepare for Fussiness

As cute as it is to watch them find their footing (sort of) on the floor, the truth is that some babies don’t enjoy tummy time—at least to start! In the meantime, try to be patient with their pace of progress. To help keep them engaged, you might try:

• Giving them a soft toy to play with
• Lying down next to them
• Encouraging them with voice and gesture
• Reading to them in a soothing voice
• Singing to them

Switch Up Their Surroundings

While creating a sense of security is important, there’s no hard-and-fast rule saying tummy time must take place at the same place and time each day. If the season’s right, you might try attempting tummy time on an outing to the park! Just make sure that:

• The surface they’re on is soft
• There are no choking or physical hazards in their midst
• You keep an eye on them at all times

Remember, you (or any caretaker) creates continuity between environments by being an attentive, responsive, and encouraging presence. So long as your baby feels safe, they’ll be free to roam (or roll) to their tummy’s content.

Do Your Best to Stay Engaged and Responsive

Tummy time is a beautiful opportunity to tap into four key attributes behind secure parent-infant bonds:

• Acceptance and acknowledgment of a baby’s needs
• Sensitivity and responsiveness to baby’s immediate needs
• Cooperation with a baby’s cues and behaviors
• Physical and emotional accessibility of a parent to their child

Time spent on the floor creates the conditions for all of these to occur, in all their forms—eye contact, physical touch, playing, and creating a sense of safety. Plus, your baby will reap the benefits of building a strong physical foundation to sustain bonds and positive interactions with caregivers and loved ones.

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At SneakPeek, our commitment is to provide accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information to empower our readers. Our content is thoroughly researched, reviewed by medical experts, and fact-checked to ensure its credibility. We prioritize the well-being and education of our readers, and our editorial policy adheres to the highest standards of integrity and accuracy in all our articles.

This post has been reviewed for accuracy by the following medical professional:

Katie Smith, MSN, APRN, CNM

Katie Smith is a seasoned Certified Nurse Midwife and a nurturing mother to six children, offering a unique blend of professional expertise and personal experience. She is the founder of Birth Your Way Midwifery and Women’s Wellness Center in Bay County, Florida. Katie's comprehensive approach to care is informed by her hands-on experience in motherhood and her passion for empowering women through their birthing journey. Her dedication extends beyond her center as she actively engages in community wellness and family health education.

Sources:

1. US Department of Health and Human Services. Tummy Time for a Healthy Baby. https://safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov/reduce-risk/tummy-time
2. VeryWell Family. How to Teach a Baby to Crawl. https://www.verywellfamily.com/at-what-age-will-your-baby-start-to-crawl-5085117#toc-when-do-babies-start-to-crawl
3. National Library of Medicine. Plagiocephaly. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK564334/
4. Cleveland Clinic. Benefits of ‘Tummy Time’ and How to Do It Safely. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/3-benefits-of-tummy-time-for-newborns-how-to-do-it-safely
5. Healthline. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. https://www.healthline.com/health/sudden-infant-death-syndrome#causes-and-risk-factors
6. Healthline. Guide to Tummy Time: When to Start and How to Make Tummy Time Fun. https://www.healthline.com/health/parenting/tummy-time
7. Psychology at Stony Brook University. Ainsworth – Maternal Sensitivity Scales. http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/pdf/mda_sens_coop.pdf