Tummy Time: Why Babies Need It and How to Start

Tummy time means placing your baby on their stomach while they are awake and you are watching. It is the main way a young baby builds the neck, shoulder, back and arm strength that rolling, sitting and crawling all depend on, and it is the counterweight to the many hours a baby now spends on their back.

What does tummy time actually do?

Tummy time builds the muscles a baby needs for every movement milestone that follows. Lying on their front makes a baby lift their head and push up with their arms, which works the neck, shoulders, back and core. Those are the same muscles used for rolling over, sitting up and getting onto hands and knees.

It also gives a baby a different view of the room. From the floor they practise tracking things with their eyes, reaching for what they can see, and working out where their own body is — all of which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics treats active floor play as part of infant development rather than an optional extra.

Why does time on the back need balancing out?

Because babies now sleep on their backs, and that is not something to change. Back sleeping is the single most effective thing that reduced sudden infant death, and it is not up for negotiation. But it does mean a baby spends many hours with the same part of the skull against a mattress, which can flatten it — a condition called positional plagiocephaly.

Tummy time is how you offset that without touching sleep position. Awake time on the front takes the pressure off the back of the head while the skull is still soft.

The AAP also warns about the other direction: time spent strapped into car seats, swings, bouncers and other equipment that restricts movement is associated with delayed motor development. The point is not just tummy time, it is time out of the seat.

How much tummy time does a baby need, and when do you start?

You can start the day you come home from hospital. Begin with a few minutes at a time, two or three times a day, and add more as your baby gets stronger and less annoyed by it. Most babies who resist it at two weeks are fine with it by two months.

There is no single number that fits every baby, and pushing a screaming newborn to a target does nothing useful. Frequency matters more than duration: several short sessions a day beat one long one.

What if my baby hates tummy time?

Almost every baby dislikes it at first, and the answer is nearly always to make the position easier rather than to wait it out. Three ways to do that:

Chest-to-chest

Lie on your back and put your baby on your chest, tummy down. Your heartbeat and voice do most of the settling, and looking up at your face gives them a reason to lift their head. This is usually the version a newborn tolerates first.

On a blanket, with something to look at

Spread a blanket on the floor and put a toy or a baby-safe mirror just within reach. Getting down on the floor at their eye level works better than anything you can buy.

Over a rolled towel

Put a rolled towel or small blanket under your baby's chest with their arms forward. The slight lift makes holding the head up much less work, which turns a session that ended in crying into one that does not.

If your baby still protests, shorten the sessions and do more of them, and go back to chest-to-chest when it stops being fun. Never leave a baby on their front unsupervised, and never let them fall asleep that way.

When should I mention it to a doctor?

Raise it at your next check-up if your baby is not lifting their head during tummy time by around three months, seems stiff or floppy, or consistently turns their head to only one side. The CDC publishes free milestone checklists by age, which are a better reference than a comparison with someone else's baby — and the reason they exist is that acting early on a real delay works far better than waiting.