Less Tummy Time, More Mummy Time

Can’t stop smootching her head!!!

Imagine this: You’re caravanning through the prairie because you’re a ancient tribe of nomadic hunters and all the mommies say, ‘Stop the train, our babies need tummy time!’.  Or, you live thirty thousand years ago, in the mountains, in a safe warm cave.  You’ve got your baby wrapped up against you in some animal skin carrier, because it’s winter, and you think, ‘Oh, gotta put my baby down for tummy time so they can faceplant on the cold stone floor.’.  No way man!

Honestly, I would like to know of one baby who actually enjoys tummy time.  Some babies tolerate tummy time, but how many babies squeal in delight the second you put them on their bellies?  I’m not talking about a baby who is 4 or 5 months old and is getting ready to crawl soon.  I’m talking about a very young baby, newborns or babies who are only a few months old.  Some babies like to sleep on their tummies, but now the medical people say, ‘back to sleep‘, so all those poor babies who prefer to sleep on their tummy are stuck on their back until they can learn to roll over.  I’m not a professional in the area of infant physiological development, but I do know a little bit about how babies gain their strength, anyone can figure that one out.  My mother says something like, ‘they get their strength starting from their neck down to their toes‘.  In other words, first they learn to hold their head up, then sit, then maybe crawl, then walk.

From what I saw with Margo, tummy time was very distressing!  Goldie was a whole different story in the beginning.  The few times I did place her on her tummy, she actually fell asleep… Well, that is Goldie and she loves to sleep and was a VERY sleepy newborn.  But, forget about that.  Now, tummy time is the same for Goldie as it was with Margo.  Two seconds on her tummy and she’s ready to crack it, so I don’t even bother!

Snuggle Bunny

Despite the fact that Margo and now Goldie have had very little tummy time… developmentally they were spot on, or even early in their physical milestones.  Margo was sitting around five months, and by six months was sitting well.  Crawled at nine, first steps at twelve and walking well by thirteen months.  At three months, Goldie sits in my lap, solid, like a little straight back buddha baby, with minimal head wobbling.  If I don’t give them tummy time, then how did they get so strong?  I know it’s because I wear and carry them everywhere we go. Think about it.  When you wear (or even just carry) a baby on your body, every time you move, they have to move!  You bend over, they’re bending over with you.  Even if you have your hand gently supporting their neck when you go to bend over, they are still having to use their own muscles to cling to you, or at least hold their head up enough to keep it from falling off.

They feel the rhythm of your body with everything that you’re doing together.  Baby wearing is as tactile as it gets.  Feeling, touching, breathing (clinging on for dear life sometimes), it’s all part of the way that a baby learns from its mother.  Remember, a baby has been smooshed in your tummy for 9 months.  The big bad world is… really big and sometimes overwhelming.  Right up against you is where they learn best… and is where they have been learning best since the start of the human race.  I’ll never forget, when I was pregnant with Margo, I was reading that book, ‘What to Expect, When You’re Expecting‘.  The lady said some garbage about how a baby who is being worn all the time is being under stimulated!  Ugh, millions of people have read that book!  Somebody needs to bop that woman on the head!  How could baby wearing be under-stimulating for a baby!  Hello!!!  They’re sitting upright, next to your face where they can see and hear everything!  Not laying flat on their back staring at the sky!  I’ll say that’s true even for older babies (my 2 1/2 year old daughter still loves a ride).

Now, I’m not saying that if you don’t carry your baby everywhere, they’re never going to learn.  I certainly use one of those bouncer things as a chair for Goldie to sit in, so she can watch us when I have to do something but can’t hold her.  I would say she’s never in that thing for more than five minutes a day, max.  And, I certainly stick her on the floor next to us while I’m folding laundry, with her diaper off, letting her bottom air out.

Flat Heads

A few weeks ago, I was watching Art and Margo at her swimming lesson and I was checking around the pool at all the kids.  The kids ranged from infants to about 4 years old.  Oddly, I noticed a lot of the kids had these heads that were flat in the back and sort of pointy at the top.  I did a quick google search on my phone and found that it’s a very common condition called plagiocephaly, and is a result of a baby spending so much time on its back.  (sometimes it’s a result of something totally different, when a baby has something called torticollis, but that’s much more rare). Parents get all freaked out and take their kids to the doctor (I would too), and the docs tell the parents to change the position of their cot in the room, so that the baby will turn its head the other direction.  Or, wedge a towel, or get a helmet, etc. Well sure, babies who can’t sit yet do spend a lot of time flat on their back, it’s sometimes unavoidable.  But, there could be ways to minimize the ‘flat on back’ position, right?  Like,,, what if the docs told those parents to wear or carry their babies a little more often?

Even if you wear your baby for one or two hours a day, that’s one or two hours less a day that the baby spends flat on its back.  Between sleeping on a flat surface, sitting in the car, stroller, baby bouncer, etc. babies rarely get a chance to use those neck and head muscles!  At least by wearing or carrying your baby for a little, you would reduce the amount of time they spend on their back by a little.  And, who wants to be staring at the sky 24/7 anyway, babies love looking around.  I kid you not, one of the flat headed babies at the pool was strapped into the stroller by his mother, only for them to walk the twenty steps from the building to the car!  I have seen similar such events at Margo’s daycare.  A parent putting their kid in the stroller to walk from the car to the door!  Ok, maybe if you had triplets, I can understand.  But, really, what’s so hard about throwing that baby on your hip and carrying them 20 or 30 steps?

Exercise

Today, we were running errands at the shops, Target, grocery shopping, etc. Goldie was awake the whole time, wrapped on my chest.  She was looking around at everything, holding her head up the entire time (I can already tell, this girl likes to shop).  For a three month old baby, holding her head up for about an hour looking around, is a major workout!  If she had been in a stroller, she would have been flat on her back, not using those neck and back muscles at all.  Plus, what a great workout for me… carrying around a 14 pound weight for an hour!

Sleepy head!

Elimination Communication and Promotes Physical Development

Practicing elimination communication (EC), is another chance for the baby to be learning from your body language and staying upright, rather than laying down.  While you hold and help them to ‘go’, it’s that much less time they’re on their back, and that much more hands on time that they’re getting from you.  I always feel a bit funny if I have to lay Goldie down on her back and clean her bottom off… looks a bit indignant to me.  It’s so much better when I can take her to the potty, and then I just wash her bottom off under some warm water in the sink. The whole while, she doesn’t even lay down on her back for a second, unless I have to put a diaper back on her.

I’m not saying you should never use a stroller, or you should never put your baby on his or her tummy.  I’m just saying that a little good old baby wearing or carrying, probably gives just as much, if not more, exercise to your baby’s neck and back, mostly because they can do it for longer!  Plus, it’s way more interesting.  Let’s see… faceplant on the floor during five minutes of tummy time… or check out all the things to shop for at Target for an hour!  Or, even a little impromptu tummy time, having baby laying on your own tummy, might be less traumatic for the poor buggers.

Manhandle Those Babies!

My mother, while she never really used baby carriers, because you couldn’t really get your hands on too many of them in the early 80’s, said that she used to manhandle us as newborns.  You know, fling us over her shoulder and carry us around while she got stuff done.  Might have been a bit tough on her back, but think about what a newborn baby has to do in order to bounce around on their mother’s shoulder.  They really have to hang on!  So, maybe in our society, we need to take a look at designated ‘tummy time’.  Are we using it as just a bit of fun, or is it the ONLY time that the baby gets a break from being flat on their back?  I say, get more hands on, leave the stroller at home more often and carry or wear that baby!  It’s great exercise for the adult as a well as the baby!  Baby wearing: great for exercising your baby, also great for exercising the parents!  Reduces face-planting and crying at tummy time too.  What do you think about tummy time?

Mummy time

* To add to this post.  A friend of mine have been talking heaps about tummy time since this post has been up.  She mentioned that there are various yoga poses (cobra) where you lay on your tummy to get prana (or energy) and blood flowing to different parts of the body.  Very interesting!  Again, I’m not anti-tummy time at all.  But, more into hands on and pro-babywearing!!!