A fussy baby?

We have known tummy down times are important for a baby’s motor development and so we have been encouraging Darius to adopt the tummy down position during his waking times, especially during the first few weeks of his life.

Sadly, we have noticed that he disliked being down on his tummy and will almost always end up crying in frustration.

Knowing that he’s a child always wanting to look around enthusiastically at his surroundings, being down on his tummy would mean restricting his view. Given his impatient character, he would cry out instead of perservering longer to bring his head high up to get a better view using his own abilities.

We have thus cut down on his tummy times a lot, especially when my interaction time with him is scarce and precious after I return from work during weekdays’ nights. I will want to build our bond further while he’s in a good mood and definitely not when he’s in a foul, unreceptive mood.

I did a search on the Web today on this and came across two interesting links, the first featuring an article on the slow development in babies in the recent years in terms of average crawling age and how the widespread practice of placing our babies on their backs when sleeping (since studies have shown that this will reduce Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has attributed to this.

The other link offers an article that provides useful tips and strategies to help our babies feel more at ease on their tummies, and I’m relieved to know that we are not the only ones faced with a baby who dislikes to be down on his tummy.

Here are some of the strategies the article offer:

Keep your baby company

One mom-tested strategy is to distract your baby from the unfamiliar feeling of being face-down until he gets used to it. The best thing you can do is join your baby on the floor. Encourage him, talk with him, shake his rattle, make funny faces, play peekaboo.

We have tried comforting him and getting his attention by being within his sight, and even lying down beside him and continuously talking and encouraging him. Unfortunately, this had not work well as he seemed to be tuned off from all outside interference the moment he entered his ‘frustrated crying frenzy’.

Provide entertainment

Prop a board book open in front of your baby, or place a favorite toy within reach. Invest in a tummy-time toy or gym, designed especially for babies to play with while on their belly. Some have lights, mirrors, moving pictures, music and/or squeaky toys attached. Or place him on a colorful quilt or an activity mat designed just for babies.

We have tried this a few times time and the only time when it worked was when he was placed on the Pooh Playmat, with his face towards the checkered board. The latter had attracted his attention sufficiently to make him forget that he was in his disliked position. However, we didn’t manage to succeed on this again thereafter, though this is probably still one of the best methods for us to keep trying on.

Prop your baby up

Some parents find that giving their baby a new perspective — by propping him on a rolled towel or nursing pillow, for example — makes all the difference. If your child has some neck strength and head control (by age 3 or 4 months) but can’t get up on his forearms, simply place the towel or pillow under his chest and armpits, with his arms in front of it.

This is something new to us, and we will definitely give it a try to see if it will help.

Time it right

Make sure your baby isn’t hungry or tired when you set him tummy-down. On the other hand, don’t place him on a full belly, which might be uncomfortable. When he starts to cry — even if it’s only been a minute — try to coax him a bit longer by talking with him or playing with him. When he’s had enough, pick him up and try again later. His tolerance for tummy time is likely to increase gradually with experience and a bit of coaxing. And many babies are more content on their tummy once they can roll over and it becomes a matter of choice.

We usually started to place him down on his tummy only after some time of fun and interacting with him, and he’s still in a good mood at that moment. Nevertheless, his emotions will turn to the worst almost immediately after we placed him down, and only returned to normal after we have lifted him up from his tummy down position. Guess we might just have to be more persistent and wait a bit longer before lifting him up next time.

Tune in to your baby

Try to figure out if there’s anything in particular about tummy time that your baby finds distressing. Maybe his blankie gets too scrunched under him for comfort (and that shag carpet is downright scary). Maybe it’s too cold on the floor, or too slippery.

For us, it’s probably Darius felt that he was no longer be able to have a full view of his surroundings, unlike when he was back lying or being carried around. Sometimes we also wondered if his tummy was too big and thus obstructed his movement (not to mention great discomfort) while he’s placed on the ground. ^^|

Anyway, these articles offer valuable information for us and we will try our best to put them into good use and hopefully get Darius used to the tummy down position soon.

Meanwhile, we are also reminded to take things easy, and not to be overly concerned with his crawling development, as the first article has put it across:

An increasing number of babies never crawl at all, pediatricians say, going directly from sitting to toddling.

The studies’ researchers emphasize that there seems to be no medical consequence to this developmental change. The babies are normal in every other way, and they sit up and walk at the same time they always did.

More importantly for us,

“Language skills are far better markers of developmental delay in babies,” said Dr. Beth Ellen Davis, a developmental pediatrician at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., who led the American study.

So as long as Darius is still happily blabbering to us non-stop and is neurologically simulated from time to time, there’s nothing for us to worry about too much. ^^

Invaluable moments when he talks while looking into our eyes...

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