Tummy time is an important part of your young baby’s development and routine and as a new parent you might have already come across it a few times. It refers to placing your baby on their tummy whilst encouraging them to play and interact with you. But why is tummy time so important? The team at babocush have pulled together 5 key benefits of tummy time.
1. It Strengthens Muscles Which Leads to Better Head Control
Tummy time helps to strengthen your baby’s neck and back muscles. As a result, this gives them more control over their head, which is something that’s very important when they’re still young and developing. Those strong neck muscles will be essential as they start to move around more freely.
A baby positioning cushion, like the babocush, helps encourage tummy time as it holds your baby in a very natural and comfortable position as opposed to lying flat on the floor. The babocush is great for strengthening your baby’s neck, back and torso, as well as for promoting cognitive development. It also encourages the airways to remain open and relaxed, perfect for helping your baby to release gas after feeding whilst providing them with safety and comfort and you with peace of mind!
2. This Leads to Further Development with Sitting and Rolling
Once your baby has built up lots of strength from all that tummy time, they’ll be able to start sitting up more comfortably and safely. They’ll also start rolling around and exploring all kinds of different movements that they couldn’t do before. All of this comes from spending time on their tummy and strengthening all of those key muscles in the neck, back and torso!
3. Encourages Your Baby to Reach Out
When your baby is laying on their tummy, they’ll start to use their arms in different ways too. Encouraging them to start reaching out and grabbing at things will help strengthen many other muscles in their bodies, such as the muscles in their arms. The range of motion your baby has at a young age develops fast and it’s activities such as tummy time that makes this possible.
4. And That Eventually Leads to the First Stages of Crawling
After spending plenty of time on their tummy, moving around and using their body in different ways, your baby will eventually start to perform movements that are early attempts at crawling. As you’ll know, crawling is an important early developmental milestone for babies which they’ll reach quicker if they’ve been encouraged to regularly lie on their tummy and move around in the ways discussed above.
5. It Can Also Help Avoid Skull Problems
If your baby spends too much time lying on their back they are at risk of developing a flattened area on the back of their skull; babies skulls are so soft that flattening can easily occur in this area. Therefore, it is important to have your baby spend plenty of time on their tummy as this helps ease any pressure on the back of the skull.
The babocush is not only helpful for babies with trapped gas, colic and reflux; it can also help prevent flat head syndrome! By reducing the amount of time your baby lies flat on their back, the babocush allows your baby to not only strengthen their neck, back and torso muscles, but to prevent skull problems too. You can check out some of the features of the babocush here.
So, what are you waiting for? From day one, your baby will benefit from 3 - 5 short sessions of tummy time each day and the sooner you start, the better! As your baby grows and matures, you can begin to lengthen these session. For more information on tummy time, check out our parenting blogs:
