As a new parent, you may be sick of hearing the phrase tummy time. Your little one hates it. You dread it, and you barely have the time… 60 minutes a day is a LOT.
While you are painfully aware of how challenging tummy time can be, here’s something you might not know – the benefits of tummy time don’t always have to come from belly-down time on the ground (or with fussing!).
Putting your baby in an Otteroo, for example, is a fun way to take advantage of water’s buoyancy to let your baby defy gravity and get into a modified tummy time position that is less of a struggle!
How?
Let’s start with why tummy time is so important:
- It helps strengthen your little one’s core muscles to help with head control and eventual sitting.
- It sets up the foundation for your little one to roll, crawl, and sit.
- It helps your little one stretch out their front side after being curled in the womb for the last 9 months (just like we need to stretch our muscles, so do they!).
- It helps with reflux, despite how counterintuitive this sounds.
- It helps prevent your little one from getting a flat spot on the back of their head.
And here is where Otteroo comes in:
- While your little one is in the Otteroo they are getting the benefits of decreased pressure on the back of their head (bye bye, flat head!).
- As your baby gets more comfortable and confident in their Otteroo, they roll onto their stomach from their back, which puts them in a modified tummy time. In this position your little one is working their back and extensor muscles while stretching out their front muscles, like they would on land but with less effort (see next point).
- Because water’s buoyancy decreases body weight, when your baby is on their belly it’s easier for them to activate their muscles without gravity pulling them down – I wish I could build muscles with less struggle, too!
So, for all the little ones struggling with tummy time (because it’s hard!), Otteroo can provide a fun, alternative way to clock in some of the 60 minutes, with giggles!
For those of you that are still waiting for your Otteroo to arrive, here are some tips I have shared to help you get those 60 minutes of tummy time in.