Tummy time: how much, and how to make it less of a battle

Our paediatrician said tummy time and Jeevika said, in so many screams, absolutely not. If you are in that phase, welcome. It is normal, it passes, and there are a few things that genuinely helped us.

How much is enough?

The standard advice is a few short sessions a day, building toward roughly an hour total by three or four months. In practice, nobody's baby reads the guidelines. We counted any supervised minute on the tummy as a win. Two minutes, six times a day, beat one heroic twenty-minute session that ended in tears for everyone.

What made it easier

• A firm, slightly springy surface. Too soft and they sink, too hard and you are basically putting them on the floor. This is, not coincidentally, why our Soft Foam mat is 30 mm of high-density foam.
• Getting down to their eye level. A parent lying face-to-face is worth more than any toy.
• Toys just out of reach, rotated often. The same rattle three days running is invisible to a baby.
• Timing it after a nap, not before a feed. A hungry or sleepy baby has one setting, and it is not exercise.

One honest note: some days we skipped it entirely. She learned to crawl anyway. The goal is a strong, happy baby, not a perfect spreadsheet of minutes.