Infant Tummy Time

[luv2laugh]

I only found the brillkids forum a few days ago and was immediately swept into this world of early education.  Well, after reading about the importance of tummy time, I decided to put our little girl (4 weeks old) on her tummy for all her waking moments.  Yesterday, she was awake a lot and on her tummy for hours.  We did lots of little play sessions and tons of stimulation.  Well, today... she is absolutely exhausted.  It's 3:30pm and we haven't even had enough alert/awake time for 1 tummy time. 

Did your infants get tired after implementing this stuff? It could also be a growth spurt. 

Thanks all for your contributions to this great community, I've already found this site very educational.

[PokerDad]

At 4 weeks, Cub wasn't giving any significant nap reprieve. It took a very long time before he settled into a daily nap routine.

Additionally, like you allude to, there were times when he'd go on "monster" sleep sessions (3 hours?) and we chalked it up to growth spurts whenever it happened. Consistency over time is what is important here, not meeting some minimum each and every day. The challenge that I found was in helping his tummy time be more entertaining or productive. I remember putting Cub on a wedge so that his body could be more in a crawl-like position. We also did sitting position and then when he was strong enough I started doing negative rep sit-ups which seemed to accelerate his progress. I didn't do the sit-up thing until he had some time under his belt.

anyway, hope this post helps!

[luv2laugh]

Thank you.  Baby girl is less tired today.  I like the idea of a wedge.  I've done a bit of research and am looking forward to trying out different ways to make tummy time more interesting and a part of our routine.

[GeniusExperiment]

you can also do tummy time on your leg or in your arms in those cases, then it's more fun and cuddly and less frustrating for baby. Just pick a time of the day when the baby is not tired or cranky, there should be a time like this every day and always better to do many short sessions that a long mega session. Keep it up!

[luv2laugh]

I thought I'd follow up on this.  Baby girl started getting upset with tummy time as she got older.  I'm not sure if it's because she pushed off the crawling track and landed odd on an arm or because her GERD/reflux got worst and it was uncomfortable being on her tummy.  It seemed to start as we began to do "crawling track" more.  We didn't actually make a crawling track, but used a padded exercise mat.  It may have been due to GERD, but we really had a set back in terms of tummy time and I think I caused it.  The most important thing, I would stress, is to pick them up while they are still happy and not let them suffer it out.  I know I picked her up from the crawling track several times after her fussing had turned to crying.   

All I know is that as soon as we put her on her tummy, she would start crying tears and screaming immediately.  It was horrible and really set us back.  I called the nice people at IAHP to ask for advice and they recommended that I forget about the crawling track for now and put her down for short short periods of time.  Just put her down, pick her up before she gets upset and then do something really fun with her.

Well, as a baby baby, we didn't have anything fun enough to take away the trauma of 10 seconds of tummy time.  But, she liked her infant stim cards.  So, we put her down 2-5 seconds, picked her up before she even realized what had happened and showed her her infant stim cards.  Then as she started to like toys, we had even more things to reward her with.  We did the 2-5 second tummy time maybe 20x a day when she was in a happy alert mood and after eating.  We also held her up in the prone'ish type position and played with her down there to get her used to the position in a positive light, without the effort involved.  We slowly increased her 2-5 seconds and we are now at 2-5 minutes.  I actually started showing her brill baby down there (now that she likes it) and it really distracts her.  I'm a little concerned that she will pick up less, but once she shows any sign that she is getting disinterested or may begin to fuss, I exit out of BB.

Anyways that is my long update.  I do put her on the wedge/pillow when we watch BB or play with toys and continue to put her on the exercise ball tummy down and on my leg. 

We haven't tried the crawling track again and I think she would get upset if we did, so we'll have to wait a bit longer. 

Thanks BB Community!

[Rachel NZ]

The crawling track was a stunning failure in our house.

He motored down the length of it at 6days
Any time after that he felt boxed in by the sides and screamed.

We did lots of crawling practice in the first few months, scooting across a mat, pushing off my hands.
Then he decided he'd much rather walk.
Crawling got too frustrating as he put on more weight. He'd try push off my hands and just start screaming to be picked up.

He's not rolling yet. He can pivot around to watch things he is interested in.
Tummy time is fun as long as im hanging out on the ground with him.

I'm sure Glen and Janet would tell me off but i let him support his weight/balance by holding my fingers and he really enjoys stepping.

Whenever people see him standing/stepping they give me advice about the importance of crawling or say "oooh be careful, thats not good for his legs".
Its a bit hard to 'make' a baby crawl. and its not me that initiates the standing, he makes his wishes perfectly clear to anyone who is holding him.
His great gran is always telling us off for standing him. He is 4months, she had him the other day. I held my tongue as I watched him get her to sit him up from the cradle hold, then he made her stand him, then he made her put him on the ground, then her nearly dragged her off the chair as he marched off accross the room. I'd never seen such insistant stepping from him, i wish i had captured it all on my camera. It was the funniest thing. I'm not even sure she noticed that she'd done a complete 180 on her advice. 

[luv2laugh]

The woman at IAHP also said that you can go back and practice the cross lateral movements once they get older.   .  

[Skylark]

Rachel, I think you are doing great! Each child is very very individual and the best thing you can do is to follow his lead.

My daughter never crawled and did not enjoy tummy time at all, she started walking at 8 months independently. But we baby-wore her a lot ( baby wearing is comparable to tummy time, and it worked wonderful with her). She got some excellent cross lateral movement practice with climbing ladders, etc

My son absolutely benefited from crawling track, and for him it was great fit. We also wore him a lot in Ergo, in a wrap and in a sling. He was a good crawler and early walker as well.

My 3rd baby did not care much about crawling track, he always loved his tummy time though and he spent about 90% on his tummy as a baby, when laying down. He is a lazy crawler    and not walking yet at 13 months.

[Soccer Mommy]

Skylark what do you mean by baby-wore? My husband and I have had a difficult time with out daughter and tummy time. We could probably put her on her tummy more than what we have  been doing I must admit. Any advice? When we hold her on our chest/ shoulders, she loves it even when we're laying down or walking around and she moves around trying to look at everything. But after a couple minutes with tummy time she get's fussy and crying.

[Skylark]

Here is something Tamsyn wrote about it a some discussion on it:

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-other-topics/help!-she-hates-tummy-time!/msg95147/#msg95147

Babywearing is awesome and I can not recommend it enough!

[Soccer Mommy]

I am definitely getting some of those wraps! Thank you!       Love these santa hat smilies too! My nephew saw them sitting on my lap and wanted me to press every single one of them hahaha

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