Why is tummy time important?
More Than a Milestone — It’s Brain Development in Action
Tummy time isn’t just about preventing flat spots on your baby’s head. It builds strength, stimulates the vestibular (balance) system, supports visual tracking, integrates primitive reflexes, and lays the neurological groundwork for rolling, crawling, coordination and attention. If your baby resists tummy time, that’s useful information — and there are gentle ways to help.
Let’s Start Here: Why Do We Even Talk About Tummy Time?
You’ve probably heard it at your maternal health check or in a parenting group: “Make sure you’re doing tummy time.”
But no one really explains why.
Tummy time isn’t just a developmental checkbox. It’s one of the earliest ways your baby learns to organise their nervous system against gravity. It’s their first strength session. Their first balance challenge. Their first coordination workout.
When your baby is placed on their tummy while awake and supervised, something powerful happens: their brain wakes up.
They lift their head. They push into their arms. They turn to find your face. And with each small effort, they wire new neural pathways.
Tummy time helps to:
form the curve of the neck
strengthen the neck, shoudlers and trunk,
prepares for future milestones; and
aids in preventing flat spots on the head.
QUALITY MATTERS:
Watch for and set them up:
Tucked arms/elbows underneath shoulders - so they're weight bearing through arms rather than arching
The Vestibular System: The Quiet Architect of Development
Inside your baby’s inner ear lives the vestibular system — the body’s balance and spatial awareness centre.
Every time your baby lifts, turns, or tilts their head during tummy time, fluid moves through tiny canals in the inner ear. That movement sends signals to the brainstem, cerebellum, and eye muscles.
This is how your baby learns:
Where their body is in space
How to stabilise their head
How to coordinate their eyes with movement
How to regulate alertness
The vestibular system is deeply connected to attention, posture, and emotional regulation later in childhood. When babies spend time on their tummy, they are strengthening this system in a way that lying flat on their back simply can’t provide.
It’s subtle. But it’s foundational.
Strength Isn’t Just About Muscles
Of course tummy time strengthens muscles — particularly through the neck, upper back, shoulders, and core.
But what’s really happening is more interesting than that.
Your baby is learning how to organise their body against gravity. Gravity is the great teacher of development. When babies push up, shift weight, and gradually lift higher, they’re not just building strength — they’re building postural control.
This postural control is what eventually allows them to:
Roll smoothly
Sit upright without slumping
Crawl with coordination
Stand with balance
Walk with stability
Without early prone play, some babies compensate. You might notice head preference, flattening on one side of the skull, delayed rolling, or early walking without crawling. None of these are disasters — but they are signals.
What Tummy Time Does for the Brain
Movement drives brain development. In the first year of life, the brain grows at an extraordinary pace. Synapses form rapidly. Pathways become insulated through myelination. Primitive reflexes activate and then gradually integrate.
Tummy time supports this process in several ways.
When your baby pushes up through their arms, they activate cross-body neural circuits that later support crawling. When they turn their head to follow your voice, they are integrating early reflex patterns. When they tolerate pressure through their chest and shoulders, they build body awareness.
Over time, these small repetitions add up to:
Better coordination
Improved midline control
Stronger visual tracking
More symmetrical movement
Greater nervous system regulation
This is why tummy time is often described as a “gateway” to other milestones including crawling — and crawling itself is a gateway to cross-hemispheric brain communication.
“But My Baby Hates Tummy Time…”
This is the most common sentence we hear in clinic.
And here’s the truth: resistance isn’t failure. It’s feedback.
Babies tend to resist tummy time when it feels too hard, too uncomfortable, or too unfamiliar.
Sometimes it’s simply a strength issue. Sometimes there’s mild neck tightness or asymmetry. Occasionally it reflects birth strain patterns, reflux discomfort, or vestibular sensitivity.
Rather than pushing through tears, the goal is to make tummy time achievable.
Start with chest-to-chest positioning. When you recline and place your baby on your chest, they’re technically in prone — but it feels safe and connected. This can be done from birth and is often tolerated beautifully.
A small rolled towel under the chest can reduce effort and make early sessions more successful. Side-lying play is another helpful bridge position if full prone feels overwhelming.
The key isn’t forcing longer sessions. It’s creating many small, positive exposures throughout the day.
How Much Is Enough?
In the early weeks, think minutes — not milestones.
This does not need to happen in one session. Short, frequent, positive exposures are ideal.
A Realistic Guide:
Newborn (0–4 weeks):
1–2 minutes at a time → 5–8 times daily → Total: ~10–15 minutes/day
1–3 months:
Build to 20–40 minutes total per day
3–6 months:
Aim for 60+ minutes spread throughout the day
Newborns may only tolerate one to two minutes at a time. That’s normal. Several short sessions spread across the day can gently build capacity.
By two to three months, many babies can accumulate 20–40 minutes total per day. By four to five months, around an hour of total prone play across the day is ideal.
This doesn’t need to happen in one stretch. Five minutes here. Three minutes there. It all counts.
If you practise consistently, most babies show noticeable strength improvements within two to three weeks. If asymmetry or head preference is present, change can still happen — it just may take a little longer and sometimes benefits from professional guidance.
Tummy Time and Head Shape
Since the “Back to Sleep” campaign successfully reduced SIDS risk, babies understandably spend more time on their backs during sleep. That safety recommendation remains essential albeit we are strong advocates for co-sleeping when done correctly and safely.
But it does mean awake tummy time is more important than ever.
Prolonged back positioning without adequate prone time can contribute to plagiocephaly (flat head shape) or torticollis (neck tightness with head tilt preference). Early, consistent tummy time reduces this risk significantly.
If flattening has already begun, early intervention is much easier than late correction.
Visual Development Happens on the Tummy
When babies are on their back, they mostly look up. When they’re on their tummy, they scan horizontally.
This horizontal scanning builds visual tracking endurance. It strengthens the eye muscles. It improves depth perception. It lays the groundwork for later reading and sports skills.
It’s remarkable how much of future academic and coordination ability begins with simple head lifting and eye tracking on a play mat.
Regulation, the Vagus Nerve & Emotional Calm
Tummy time also influences autonomic regulation — the balance between the sympathetic (“alert”) and parasympathetic (“calm”) branches of the nervous system.
Gentle vestibular stimulation, pressure through the chest, and rhythmic movement can support vagal tone. Babies who tolerate prone well often show smoother transitions between alertness and calm.
On the other hand, strong arching, rigidity, or distress during tummy time may indicate that the nervous system feels overwhelmed.
Again — not a behavioural problem. Just information.
Practical Ways to Make It Easier
If your baby struggles, simplify it.
Try tummy time after a nap when they’re well-rested. Wait at least 20–30 minutes after feeding if reflux is present. Get down at eye level and talk to them. Use a mirror or a high-contrast card.
And most importantly: stop before frustration escalates. It’s better to do ten short positive sessions than one long stressful one.
Consistency builds tolerance.
What If My Baby Skips Crawling?
Please get them checked. Crawling is a cross-pattern movement that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It strengthens shoulders, wrists, core muscles, and visual tracking systems.
Babies who skip crawling aren’t doomed — but they may benefit from later cross-pattern play such as crawling races, tunnel games, or obstacle courses in toddlerhood and definitely assessment by a paediatric chirorpactor. Early intervention is key.
Tummy time is what makes crawling possible. It’s the beginning of that story.
When Should You Seek Support?
Trust your instinct.
If your baby always turns their head one way, cries intensely every time they’re placed prone, shows delayed head control beyond three months, or develops noticeable head flattening, it’s worth having them assessed.
Early support is gentle and far easier than waiting.
The Bigger Picture
Tummy time isn’t about pressure or comparison. It’s about providing your baby’s nervous system with the experiences it expects in order to develop optimally.
Small daily inputs build resilience.
A few minutes here and there may not feel dramatic in the moment — but over weeks and months, they shape posture, balance, coordination, and even attention.
That’s powerful.
FAQs
1. Can I start tummy time from birth?
Yes. Please do. Chest-to-chest prone positioning can begin immediately and is often the most natural starting point.
2. Is baby wearing the same as tummy time?
Baby wearing provides valuable vestibular input but does not replace weight-bearing through the arms and chest.
3. What if my baby cries every time?
This might be your cue to have an assessment by a paediatric chiropractor. Shorten the duration, use support under the chest, or try chest-to-chest, tiger in the tree hold. Persistent distress may warrant assessment.
4. Does early rolling mean we can stop?
No. Continue prone play to build endurance and shoulder strength even after rolling begins. Early rolling can also be a sign of joint fixation or restriction so please have this assessed. It’s “toppling” versus controlled movement.
5. How long until I see improvement?
With daily practice, many babies show improved tolerance and strength within two to three weeks.
Easy tips on how to do tummy time:
(click here for a video of the below)
Lay baby across your lap
Tiger hold, on your arm
Laying them your chest whilst you are laying down
Suggested time to try tummy time is after a nappy change or after a nap.
Progressing to;
Re arrange toys so bub has to reach them
Holding a mirror in front of them so they can see their reflection.
If your baby hates tummy time or you struggle with these tips, try:
- changing the area you are doing tummy time in or
- the toys/environment around them;
- have them assessed by your local paediatric chiropractor or osteopath for any potential contributing factor
*Please ensure the baby is awake, alert and supervised when doing tummy time. Please note that this advice is general only and if you’re at all concerned please get in touch with your local paediatric trained health practitioner.
Supporting baby development across Mosman, Sydney’s North Shore and Northern Beaches with gentle, neurologically focused care.
If you’re searching for help with tummy time, flat head shape or milestone concerns, our Mosman chiropractors are here to guide you.
Want to learn more? Book a FREE 15min discovery call with one of our Sydney Paediatric Chiropractors today: Book HERE
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American Academy of Pediatrics. Back to Sleep, Tummy to Play.
Kuo YL et al. (2008). The influence of prone positioning on motor development. Pediatrics.
Hadders-Algra M. (2005). Development of postural control. Neural Plasticity.
Iverson JM. (2010). Developing language in a developing body. Journal of Child Language.Adolph KE & Franchak JM. (2017). The development of motor behavior. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews.
Goddard Blythe S. (2005). Reflexes, Learning and Behavior.
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This article is intended for educational purposes only and does not replace individual medical or healthcare advice. Every baby develops at their own pace. If you have concerns about your child’s development, head shape, feeding, reflux, or movement patterns, please consult your GP, paediatrician, child health nurse, or qualified healthcare professional for personalised assessment and guidance.
