Tummy time trackers

What’s actually on the sheet

A week of rows, four per day, with space for the time, how long you managed, which position you used and how it went. Underneath there’s a summary box for the week, and a list of positions and activities for the days when your brain has gone completely blank.

I wrote that list for myself first, and it’s the part most people end up using. At half past four on a Tuesday, nobody remembers that a mirror exists.

How long a session should be, and how that changes

This is the question the sheet quietly raises, because once you start writing durations down you want to know what a good one looks like.

NHS advice is to start soon after birth and keep it little and often, building up gradually rather than aiming at a number. In the first few weeks, NHS services suggest one to two minutes at a time. From there you build towards roughly ten to fifteen minutes, several times a day.

So the early rows on your sheet are supposed to say things like “40 seconds” and “1 min, cried”. That isn’t a slow start, that’s the start. The rows get longer on their own as the neck and shoulders get stronger, and the jump usually happens somewhere you weren’t watching for it.

The daily total most people have heard of, and where that figure comes from, is in the tummy time guide, along with what to do when none of it is going well.

The two rules worth knowing

Tummy time is awake time, and it’s supervised time. Every session happens while you’re watching, and babies still go on their backs to sleep, every nap and every night. If your baby drops off mid session, that’s your cue to move them.

Everything else is negotiable.

Setting up a tummy time spot

Choose a firm, flat surface on the floor, such as a play mat or a blanket on a hard floor. Avoid a bed, a sofa or a raised changing surface, because a baby can roll off and tummy time should only happen where you can keep a close eye on them. Sit or lie on the floor beside them, within arm’s reach. Put one or two toys at face height, not in a pile to one side, so there’s something to look at and reach for.

If your baby loathes it

Welcome, there are a great many of us. A few things that tend to help:

Start on your chest rather than the floor. Lie back, put them on you, and let them look at your face. It counts, and it’s a much easier sell.

Pick your moment. After a nappy change is usually better than after a feed, and a grumpy baby isn’t about to be talked round.

Get down there with them. A face at floor level is more interesting than the entire contents of a toy box.

Keep it short and do it often. Three cheerful minutes spread across the day beats one grim ten minute stand off, and the sheet has four rows a day for exactly that reason.

A week in practice

Pick two fixed times a day, such as after a nappy change and after a nap, and do tummy time at those times. Short sessions done often are easier to fit in than one long session that gets skipped. Tick each row as you go, and look at the summary box at the end of the week to see how the longest session has changed.

Filling it in without losing the plot

Write it down at the time or not at all. Nobody reconstructs a Tuesday from memory on a Thursday, and a half filled sheet is still more use than a blank one.

The summary box at the bottom is there because progress in the early months is slow enough that you can’t see it day to day. Looking back at a week where the longest session went from forty seconds to three minutes is quietly encouraging, and there are weeks when you need that.

Using the sheet with a partner

If two adults share the care, agree on who does the tummy time each day, and write their initials on the row. The sheet then shows what has been done and by whom, which avoids two people doing the same session or neither doing it. A quick word at the handover is enough.

Reading your own sheet

A week that looks flat usually isn’t. Babies have off weeks, and a cold, a growth spurt or a run of bad naps will show up in these rows before it shows up anywhere else.

What’s worth noticing is the longest session rather than the average, because that’s where strength shows first. If the longest session hasn’t moved in three or four weeks, that’s not an emergency, but it is worth mentioning at your next contact with your health visitor.

Also look at which position you wrote down most often. If every row says chest, your baby is telling you the floor is still too hard, and there’s no hurry about it.

This sheet, or the daily log?

They look similar and they do different jobs. The newborn daily logs cover feeds, nappies and sleep, which is the information a midwife or health visitor asks about in the early weeks.

This one does tummy time only, in more detail than a daily log has room for, with the position and the response alongside the duration. Most people who use both keep the daily log going for a few weeks and this one for a few months, because tummy time carries on mattering long after you’ve stopped counting nappies.

When to ask someone who knows

If you have any worry about how your baby is moving, holding their head, or using one side more than the other, that’s a conversation for your health visitor or GP rather than a chart. Take the sheet with you if it helps, because it’s easier than trying to remember, but let them do the interpreting. That’s what they’re for and they have seen it all before.

Where this comes from

The session lengths above follow NHS guidance on keeping a baby active, at nhs.uk, and the tummy time advice from NHS Healthier Together, which is where the one to two minutes and the ten to fifteen minutes come from.

This is general information rather than advice about your baby. Your health visitor, family nurse, GP or midwife knows your child and this website doesn’t.