From Six Months:
Lie on your back and lay your
infant facing you on your legs.
Play ‘Superman’ by getting your
baby to extend their head and
body whilst flying through the
air.
If you have any queries, please contact your Health Visitor
The Paediatric Physiotherapy Team are based in three locations
covering the whole of Worcestershire. Your Health Visitor can refer
you and your baby to us if you need specialist advice and input.
Tummy Time Play
Information for Parents
If you need this information in another language, large
print, Braille or audio, please contact the
Communications Manager, on (01905) 760020.
Provided by Paediatric Physiotherapy
Worcestershire Children’s Health Services
www.hawc.nhs.uk
Back to Sleep-Front to Play
The “Back to Sleep” campaign has been highly successful in
preventing cot death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (S.I.D.S.)
However, many parents now never place babies on their tummies
to play when they are awake. This has resulted in Positional
Plagiocephaly (sometimes called flathead syndrome) increasing
from 1 in 300 to 1 in 60 infants. This can be made worse by a
baby having a small variety of positions used in the day.
Tummy Time Ideas
From Birth:
Baby lying on your chest whilst
you’re lying on your back.
The eye and body contact is
reassuring and it’s a comforting
way to start tummy time.
It is important for your baby to explore other positions and spend time
on their tummy during the day.
Place a rolled up towel under your
babies chest this makes lifting
head slightly easier.
Use plenty of toys and
distractions and make sure you
baby is taking weight through their
forearms.
Why is Tummy Time Play Important?
Development
Tummy time is very important to encourage the motor development of
rolling, crawling and sitting. In this position a baby learns to take weight
through their arms, push up and move weight from side to side which
helps the baby to reach and crawl. As a baby gets stronger it provides
a good position to learn to move and explore their surroundings.
Place your baby over your knees.
Prevention of Positional Plagiocephaly
Tummy time is an excellent position to prevent head flattening as it
relieves pressure from the back of their head. The muscles which lift
the head are attached to the back of the head and when they workduring tummy time- they can help to round out the lower part of the
skull.
Tummy time should always be done supervised and is best done
when your baby is alert and awake. See how long your baby can
happily stay on their tummy and try to increase this time by a
minute every 3-4 days.
Try a little and often approach- remember 10 times of 6 minutes
over a day is 1 hour!
From Four Months:
As your baby gets stronger they
will start to take more weight
through their arms and push up
onto straight arms. Use toys to
encourage reaching forwards and
to the sides. This encourages
weight shifting which is needed
for crawling.