Comments on: The Case Against Tummy Time: Guest Post by Irene Gutteridge

By: orna

orna — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:37:14 +0000

“Hence, by making them try to use their muscles, they should be able to control their movements faster.”

I think you found the RIE point right here: Though I’m not at all an RIE expert, I think that “making” babies do things rather than trusting them to move at the right for them pace is what’s being questioned. Babies will learn to lift their heads without anyone coaxing it out of them; why rush and deny them the freedom to explore movement at their own pace? It seems to me that childhood is a process and we’re trying to skip it for immediate “results”. People spend fortunes learning how to “be in the moment” yet we encourage babies to hurry up the process of becoming. We are born with a thirst for knowledge, we needn’t be “made” to learn (and frequently the making kills the process of learning).

By: Christa the BabbyMama

Christa the BabbyMama — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:55:40 +0000

I mostly agree… except that plagiocephaly is the real deal in preemies, who tend to roll on their own anyway. With our preemie daughter, we did do enforced tummy time (sometimes right on us or on a roll) under the guidance of a PT because she was getting a flat spot and her back muscles had actually started to tighten (as can happen with preemies). So in cases where there’s a medical necessity, enforced tummy time has its place.

By: Mich

Mich — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 04:23:28 +0000

“the actual act of getting to their tummy from their back (something that takes months!) is what forms their spinal curves – the lumbar, thoracic and cervical – and in turn gives them strength in their back muscles.”

Ok no, that’s not how the curves are formed. First of all, when you are born your back is concave (aka, you already have your thoracic, and sacral curves.) when the baby first starts lifting its head, that’s when the cervical curve forms and when the baby starts standing upright is when the lumbar curve forms.

While I can understand not wanting to make your baby uncomfortable, they are not paralyzed. The whole purpose is to strength the muscles and get neural coordination to start movement control. Hence, by making them try to use their muscles, they should be able to control their movements faster. And it would not be necessary to leave the baby on their stomach for long periods of time to do this.
so I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you are trying to get at here because so far most of what you say just sounds ridiculous to me. Most scientists don’t tell you to do it to prevent a flat head, they say it to help develop muscle and coordination.
Will a child’s motor skills be fine if they don’t do tummy time? For sure. But don’t go saying that its a bad thing to try and help the development of it. I feel like a bigger concern should be when to submerge your baby underwater when swimming. In that situation, I feel a baby truly is helpless. But a couple minutes on it’s stomach won’t hurt it.

By: janet

janet — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:37:37 +0000

Julie, it seems you've misread the article, which states that most, but not all young infants are uncomfortable in the tummy position because they are immobilized. This immobility is the reason some babies sleep more soundly on their tummies and also why it is associated with SIDS.

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:44:06 +0000

I understand it in theory but it doesn’t quite explain the fact that my first son preferred being on his tummy from birth. It was years before the Back to Sleep campaign so I let him sleep on his tummy all the time.

I agree that SOME babies probably feel very uncomfortable but to say that ALL babies feel this way is just ignorant.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:02:44 +0000

As far as I am aware from my own readying and research no babies at the PIKLER institute(Have a google) ever got a flat head and were never ever placed into any position they couldn’t get into/out of themselves.

Babies on there backs naturally move their head from side to side when listening and looking at things, this is only prevented if they are frequently ‘contained’ in bouncers, carseats etc.

By: Amy Appel

Amy Appel — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:54:23 +0000

I’m expecting my first baby in a few months and I totally agree with the RIE philosophy on just about everything, including tummy time. However, I just googled “positional plagiocephaly” and found a bunch of mainstream articles that basically said my baby will have a flat head if allowed to be on his/her back for extended periods of time. What is your experience with this? Do you know any RIE babies who got positional plagiocephaly? Is this just fear and hype? Maybe I shouldn’t have looked it up b/c it sounds scary!

By: Becca

Becca — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:34:10 +0000

I agree our daughter uses her muscles a lot when she is on our chest. She has been rolling onto her side now on the floor so its a matter of time before she can roll all the way over. She is held a lot but is very very strong and holds her head up very well. I think babies’ bodies know when they need to reach their milestones.

By: Dawn Pedersen

Dawn Pedersen — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:56:52 +0000

Thank you! I always felt a little weird about it but EVERYONE was saying how important tummy time was. Good thing I was kind of a slacker about it.

By: janet

janet — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:59:27 +0000

KC – thank you for asking… I think it’s totally unnecessary to prop or position babies. When we do this we “freeze” them in a position that we think they should be in, rather than trusting and allowing them to choose the positions they are ready for.