Baby cries really hard during tummy time
Babies often hate this developmentally important activity and cry intensely, even when placed on a water mat or a parent's chest. This severe distress forces parents to stop the session early to soothe the child, preventing them from doing tummy time for very long.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Doing tummy time on a water mat
- 2Laying the baby on parent's chest
- 3Holding the baby up on the shoulder
- 4Using music or a gentle voice to calm the baby
- 5Using tummy time pillows or a rolled up muslin swaddle blanket under the chest
- 6Babywearing
- 7Adjusting daytime sleep amounts, bedtimes, and wake windows
- 8Taking the baby to look out a window or engaging in chill play to calm down
- 9Nursing or rocking the baby to sleep
- 10Letting the baby crawl around the room until they look sleepy
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My baby hates tummy time more than anything, but the research shows how important it is for development.”source ↗
“Currently I do tummy time on a water mat and laying on me, but I'm not able to get him to do it very long without crying really hard so I stop it because my heart cannot handle him crying without soothing him.”source ↗
“My nine month old always always is upset, catastrophically crying at some point during the bedtime routine before bed.”source ↗
“as soon as I take him to put on jammies he is freaking out like I’m trying to sell him a timeshare.”source ↗
“this guy has literally never in his life gone from awake to sleep at bedtime without tears.”source ↗