Does Your Baby Hate Tummy Time?
Let's talk about two things that stress parents out way more than they should have to: tummy time and baby gear.
Because here's what I hear from my clients. My baby screams every time I put them on their tummy! I registered for all this stuff, am I supposed to be using it? Both are great questions, and both deserve a real answer.
I sat down with Keri Kamryn Skjei, one of our infant physical therapists at Be Well Baby, to break all of it down. Keri works with families in their homes every day, she's a mom of two, and she has a knack for making developmental stuff feel completely doable — even when your baby is melting down on the floor.
Here's what we talked about.
The floor is the best piece of baby equipment you own
Before we get into the gear conversation, let's start here: the floor is free, it's flat, and it is genuinely the best environment for your baby's motor development. No padding that shifts their weight in weird directions. No seat holding them in a position they haven't earned yet. Just gravity, ground, and your baby figuring out what their body can do.
Everything else — every bouncer, rocker, and activity center — should be evaluated against that baseline.
The truth about baby gear
You registered for it, you received it, and now it's taking up a third of your living room. So let's be honest about what it actually does.
Car seats are non-negotiable for travel — obviously. But car seats are for the car. The semi-reclined position that keeps them safe in a crash is not a great developmental position for extended periods outside of it. The two-hour rule exists for a reason: prolonged time in a car seat affects breathing, positioning, and the skull shape of babies whose heads are still incredibly moldable.
Bouncers and rockers are genuinely useful for the moments you need to put your baby down safely — to shower, to eat, to exist as a human being. That's legitimate and we're not taking them away from you. But they're rest stops, not destinations.
Bumbos and similar floor seats are the ones that give us the most pause. They prop babies into a seated position before they have the strength and motor control to get there themselves. The babies who spend a lot of time in these seats often become what we call "happy sitters" — content, upright, not complaining — and they frequently have delayed rolling because they never had the incentive or opportunity to work through the floor progressions that lead there.
If you want a seated option that's PT-designed and actually supports healthy positioning, the Upseat is worth looking at. It's different in how it orients the pelvis and it's one we actually recommend.
Walkers and exersaucers put babies in an upright, standing position long before their hips, spine, and muscle tone are ready for it. We avoid these.
Babywearing is different. When done correctly with a carrier that supports the knees-higher-than-hips "M position," babywearing is developmentally supportive, not limiting. It's regulated movement, vestibular input, and co-regulation all at once. We have a video on the Be Well Baby website walking you through positioning if you want to make sure you've got it right.
The bottom line on gear: use it when you need it, but it shouldn't be where your baby spends most of their awake time.
Okay, but my baby actually hates tummy time
This is the one I hear the most, and I want to gently push back on the framing.
Babies don't hate tummy time because tummy time is bad. They resist it because it's hard, it's unfamiliar, and if we're not introducing it thoughtfully, it can trigger a variety of reflexes like the Moro reflex — that startle response where they feel like they're falling and everything tenses up. Starting tummy time by lowering them flat onto the floor often sets off that reflex before they even have a chance to settle.
Instead: start chest-to-chest on you. Reclined on your chest counts. Tummy time doesn't have to happen on the floor, especially in the first weeks. And it should start right away — not at two months, not at the pediatrician's suggestion after the two-month visit. From the beginning.
When you DO introduce the floor. Keep them close, flexed up into a little baby ball, and lay them down on their side before helping them roll into tummy time.
What to look for as they grow:
At 2 weeks, we're just looking for some effort to lift and turn the head — and we want to see them doing it in both directions.
At 1 month, there should be more sustained lifting, chin coming up off the surface.
At 2 months, you want to see forearms starting to bear weight, head more consistently up.
At 3 months, forearm propping is established, head is stable, and they're starting to look around and interact with the world from that position.
If things seem significantly off at any of these checkpoints, that's worth having looked at.
Functional frustration is part of the process
This is a concept Keri and I talked about that I think every parent needs to hear: some frustration during tummy time — and during motor development generally — is appropriate. It's not a sign you're doing it wrong. It's not a sign your baby is struggling pathologically. It's a sign they're working.
Babies develop motor skills by encountering a challenge, recruiting effort, and gradually building the strength and coordination to meet it. If we rescue them from every moment of difficulty, we take away the very thing that drives development forward.
That said, there's a difference between effortful frustration and genuine distress. You know your baby. Stay close, stay engaged, and let them work — but follow their cues.
The connection between positioning and feeding
This one surprises people: the way your baby holds their body has a direct relationship with how they feed.
Muscle tone, head control, jaw stability, and the ability to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing are all part of the same developmental picture. Babies who spend a lot of time in containers — especially asymmetrically, with their head consistently rotated or shifted to one side — sometimes develop tension patterns that show up at the breast or bottle.
If your baby has feeding difficulties and you haven't had their positioning and motor development assessed, that's worth adding to the list.
The short version
Start tummy time now. Use the floor as much as possible. Use gear when you need it, but know what you're trading. Follow your baby's cues, tolerate some frustration, and if something feels off — get eyes on it.
Your baby doesn't need more equipment. They need more floor time, more time with you, and a little more trust in the process.
Love,
Emily
Listen to the full episode with Keri on The Be Well Baby Podcast. And if you have questions about your baby's development, our team does home visits across the Portland area!
