You may have heard the phrase, “Back to Sleep, Prone to Play.” This is used by the medical community to promote the safety of your baby during sleep and to promote the development of your baby during play. Prone positioning, or “tummy time”, during waking hours is important for your baby for many reasons.
Tummy time helps your baby improve the strength of their neck muscles to better hold up their head. This is important to help prevent conditions such as torticollis, which is a tightening of muscles on one side of the neck. Tummy time helps your baby lift their head and look to both sides to improve neck range of motion and help prevent muscle tightening.
However, if your baby has developed signs of torticollis such as head tipping to one side or not turning the head equally to both sides, tummy time is often not well tolerated. This is because the tightened neck muscles do not allow the baby to lift their head up against gravity while they are on their tummy. Your baby may cry immediately when placed in tummy time, which usually results in an immediate removal from this position and general avoidance of tummy time.
This can lead to other difficulties. A reduction in tummy time can also reduce the development of strength in the abdominal, back, arm, and leg muscles. Tummy time is important to help strengthen these muscle groups to allow your baby to roll, creep, and crawl.
If your baby does not respond well to tummy time, please see your doctor. Your baby may benefit from pediatric physical therapy. A pediatric physical therapist can help provide ways to assist your baby with tummy time and help promote development through play.