With the success of the Back to Sleep campaign, which recommends babies always be put to sleep on their backs to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), babies don't spend as much time on their tummies as they used to.
Yet spending a little time every day on their stomach is good for an infant's development. But why do babies need tummy time? What is tummy time exactly? And when should you start placing baby on his or her tummy?
WebMD asked the experts: pediatricians and parents -- to share their thoughts on tummy time, how it ties in to infant development, and what you can do to make it more fun for your little one.
Tummy time is simply the time babies spend lying and playing on their tummies, says Laura Jana, MD, a Nebraska pediatrician and co-author of Heading Home with Your Newborn.Of course, this time should always happen when the baby is awake and is being supervised.
Now that most babies sleep on their backs, spending time on their stomachs while they're awake is important not only because it gives baby a different view of the world, but also because it encourages an infant to lift his or her head, a movement that strengthens the muscles of the neck and upper back. Your baby will need those muscles later on for rolling over, sitting, and crawling.
And "not only do babies need to learn how to support their heads when they are still," says Tanya Altmann MD, a pediatrician in California, they also need to be able to?turn their head in response to what's happening around them, and hold their heads steady when they're moved. "As with other milestones, they develop these skills through practice," says Altmann, author of Mommy Calls: Dr. Tanya Answers Parents' Top 101 Questions About Babies and Toddlers.
Spending time on their stomach also helps a baby's head develop its conventional roundness. As more parents put their babies on their backs to sleep, pediatricians are noticing an increase in infants developing flat spots on the backs of their heads, a condition called positional plagiocephaly.
Tummy time can begin right after birth, says Chris Tolcher, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, or definitely by one month of age.
One reason you may want to delay tummy time for the first few weeks is to allow baby's umbilical cord stump to fall off, but if your baby finds tummy time comfortable, you can safely have baby enjoying time on their stomach right away. "I'm also a big believer that the sooner you start, the more accepting babies are and the more it is just accepted as a natural position," Jana tells WebMD. And you "may be surprised to find that even a newborn can start to turn [their] head side to side."
No comments:
Post a Comment