Tummy Time Exercises for Your Baby. When you take your baby home from the hospital you will have been given instructions, which are very important, that you put your baby to sleep on his back, in his own bed, it should be in your room, close to your bed, the bed should be flat with no blankets pillows or any toys, and this will ensure that your baby has a safe sleep environment.
But because of this, we need to then give the baby opportunities to help strengthen his shoulder and abdominal muscles. So a good rule of thumb is that every time you change the diaper, you turn the baby gently over onto his tummy.
When you get the baby over onto his tummy, you'll see that most of the weight is through his face. So you can gently put some pressure on his bum I do this with my forearm gently pushing down on his bum. Bring his elbows in front of his shoulders and you can keep them there with your hands and this will help encourage him to lift his head.
You can do this for one or two minutes and in this way you're insuring good strength of these muscles which will help his development as we move forward in the future.
Once you've done this with every diaper change for one or two minutes roll him back onto his back and this begins to give you a good opportunity to begin to make eye contact with your baby.
Around the six-week mark, the baby can begin to see your face. Your face is becoming more clear. So this becomes a time where you begin to make eye contact. If you keep your face nice and calm you help the baby keep his head in the middle.
You can even put your hand on the baby's chest which will also help keep the baby calm and help his head stay in the middle. By you keeping your face calm the baby can then begin to look at you and you'll see that you will begin to make eye contact and you may even see a gentle smile.
This is the beginning of your baby's thinking skills, the beginning of language, the beginning of attention, and obviously attachment between you and your baby.
Article by: Sunnybrook Hospital