Spend time on the floor: benefits for babies
Although physical contact is very important for a newborn and their parents, it is not the only physical aspect that promotes full development in babies. Soil time, or tummy-time, It is also a practice of great importance for our newborn.
The tummy-time consists in place our baby with her baby on the floor while he is awake and we supervise him. This practice helps our baby develop mobility of the head and neck, and the muscles of the shoulders to strengthen. It also helps to promote the optimal development of motor skills. Strengthening these muscles will be a great advance with a view to crawling and expanding the world in which our children live.
It is increasingly common to hear of cases of babies that never crawl and go directly to walk. This peculiarity began around 1994 when child health organizations worldwide began a campaign for children to sleep with their backs to the mattress.
Benefits of tummy time for babies
This campaign was very successful in reducing by 50% the number of worldwide cases of death due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), however it reduced the time babies spend on their stomachs. This reduction of tummy time It gave rise to multiple studies that indicate that babies began to reach their motor development goals later or directly skipped them.
1. Gateo. Crawling helps children to have stronger torso and limbs. Pediatricians like Felice Sklamberg of the School of Medicine at the University of New York report that children who do not crawl are not as strong and have greater difficulty climbing, getting off the ground on their own and doing activities such as leaving the pool alone. Crawling benefits not only muscle strength but also helps bilateral coordination.
2. Coordination. Using the arms and legs in reciprocal movements benefits the baby by helping him to promote a coordinated use of his body both in the present and in the future. On the other hand, crawling provides a greater interaction of the baby with the world around him. It allows you to mobilize, explore different touches and objects as well as develop visio-spatial skills and depth perception more quickly. A baby that crawls has the ability to explore the world and create new knowledge of its own originated in their own ability to address where they want to go and what catches their attention.
3. First steps. Although the babies when starting to walk will also have this same capacity, children usually learn to crawl at 6 months and to walk around 12 months. This offers an advantage of 6 months of exploration and a wider world, which at these ages of development is a great advantage and a long time.
Once all the benefits of the tummy time and the effect of sleeping on the back on motor development goals such as crawling, the same organizations that strongly advise children to sleep on their backs, started a campaign to advise that babies play upside down.
However, a study published before the recommendation that babies sleep on their backs found that babies who sleep on their stomachs were twice as likely to crawl as babies who slept on their backs. This was due to the time they were resting face down. It is clear that babies should be encouraged to sleep on their backs, but should also be compensated by having babies more time during the game face down.
Tips for practicing tummy time with your baby
1. Babies can start tummy time from a very early age. It is advisable to wait until the umbilical cord has come off completely to avoid tearing or discomfort.
2. It is done within the daily routine of the baby doing a session of tummy time at least once a day.
3. Each session can last between 15 seconds and 15 minutes. It will depend on how the baby is taking this time. Some babies show resistance at the beginning to face up because they do not have good control and have trouble lifting their heads. But little by little and with practice they will improve and it will be more pleasant to be face down.
4. When the session begins tummy time, the baby must be eaten, clean and rested. It is better to wait until an hour after eating to avoid reflux.
5. Find out what can make you drink enjoy more of this time. Tummy time It is practiced on top of a floor blanket to prevent the floor being cold or dirty, there are babies who enjoy being more upside down when they are done on the back, when they are sung or played in the background, etc.
6. Take advantage of this time to interact with your baby making funny faces, talking to him and offering toys of bright colors and / or that generate noises when moving them.Placing a mirror so that they are observed is highly recommended.
7. It is very possible that the baby makes little sounds or whines a little. This does not mean that he is not enjoying it but that it is the product of his effort. If this gentle crying escalates to a greater cry, then it is time to end the session.
8. For babies 3-4 months 20 minutes of tummy time up to date.
More on the tummy time
- A study published in the European Journal of Developmental Psychology in 2014, found a strong significant correlation between self-exploration capacity and spatial memory. Those babies who were able to explore in their early childhood had better scores in spatial memory tests at 4 and 6 years of age.
- In February 2014 an article was published in which a correlation is found between the age at which children start to walk and the age at which they develop linguistically. Although there is no correlation between the age that crawls and the age at which you walk, one of the reasons why this occurs is an increase in curiosity and need to ask what are the objects and interaction that parents have before the curious eyes of their son who begins to have more contact with objects voluntarily.
- Dedicate time to tummy time It is important, but it is also important that it be done well. That it does not extend to periods of intense crying, that they are always monitored and that a moment of active learning is made of them.
Mayte Balda Psychologist specializing in cognitive neurosciences
