Five Minutes on the Floor Could Be the Best Thing You Do for Your Baby
September 9, 2026
She was three weeks old, and she hated it.
Face down on a play mat, fists clenched, cheeks flushed, letting out the kind of wail that makes new parents want to scoop her up and never try this again. Her mother almost did. Almost.
But she didn’t. She got down on the floor instead, nose to nose with her daughter, and started singing. Thirty seconds later, the crying stopped. The baby lifted her head — just barely, just for a moment — and looked right at her.
That tiny lift? That wobbling, two-second feat of infant determination? It was the beginning of everything. Rolling. Sitting. Crawling. Walking. Running across a playground two years from now.
That was tummy time. And it matters more than most parents realize.
What We’re Actually Talking About
Tummy time is exactly what it sounds like — placing your baby on their stomach while they’re awake and supervised. It’s not a workout. It’s not physical therapy. It’s the single most important thing you can do to support your infant’s physical development, aside from feeding and loving them.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended it for decades, and pediatric specialists at practices like Strive Orthotics & Prosthetics in Shelby Township, Michigan, see the consequences every day when it doesn’t happen — or doesn’t happen enough.
“Parents ask me all the time what they can do about their baby’s head shape, and I tell them the same thing every time; tummy time is the one thing that’s completely in your hands said Matt McEwin owner of Strive Orthotics & Prosthetics.
You can’t control how fast your baby grows or how soft their skull is, but you can control how much time they spend off the back of their head. Five minutes a few times a day. That’s it. It’s the single most powerful thing a parent can do to give their baby’s head the best chance to develop the way it should.” McEwin added.
Here’s what tummy time actually does. It strengthens the neck, shoulders, and back — the muscle groups your baby needs for every motor milestone ahead. Rolling over. Sitting up. Crawling. These aren’t things that just happen on schedule. They happen because the muscles are ready. And the muscles get ready on the floor, face down, working against gravity for a few minutes at a time.
But strength is only part of the story.
The Flat Spot Problem Nobody Warned You About
Since 1992, when the “Back to Sleep” campaign dramatically reduced SIDS deaths by getting parents to put babies to sleep on their backs, something else started happening. Pediatricians began seeing a sharp rise in positional plagiocephaly — flat spots on the back or sides of babies’ heads.
It makes perfect sense. A newborn’s skull is soft and malleable. Put them on their back for every nap, every night, and often during every waking hour in a bouncer or car seat, and the skull responds to that constant pressure. It flattens.
Tummy time is the counterbalance. When a baby spends supervised time on their stomach, the pressure comes off the back of the head. The skull gets a chance to round out naturally. For many babies, regular tummy time combined with repositioning is all it takes to prevent or correct mild flattening.
For some, though, the flat spot needs more help. That’s where cranial remolding orthoses come in—custom-fitted helmets like the Talee, a breathable, 3D-printed device designed for each baby’s head shape. Strive Orthotics & Prosthetics offers free cranial evaluations for concerned parents, because early intervention makes the biggest difference.
But here’s the thing the specialists will tell you first: start tummy time early, do it consistently, and you may never need that conversation at all.
When to Start, How Long to Go
This part surprises people. You can start tummy time the day you bring your baby home from the hospital.
Not for long. Two to five minutes, a few times a day. That’s it. Your newborn will probably hate it. They’ll fuss. They’ll cry. They’ll act like you’ve placed them on hot coals instead of a soft blanket. This is normal. Every pediatric specialist and infant therapist will tell you the same thing — it’s supposed to be hard at first.
By three months, the goal is about an hour of total tummy time spread throughout the day. Not an hour straight. Short sessions, scattered between diaper changes and feedings and naps. Five minutes here, ten minutes there. It adds up.
And it changes as your baby grows. Between three and six months, you’ll see them start to push up on their arms, reach for toys, shift their weight side to side. These aren’t random movements. They’re the foundations of crawling. Between six months and beyond, tummy time evolves into full floor play — pivoting, rolling, army-crawling toward anything shiny on the other side of the room.
The Tricks That Actually Work
Let’s be practical, because knowing tummy time matters is one thing. Getting a screaming baby to tolerate it is another.
First: get down there with them. Babies are hardwired to seek your face. Lay on your stomach nose-to-nose, and they have a reason to lift their head. Sing. Make ridiculous faces. Put a mirror on the floor so they can see themselves.
Second: use different positions. Tummy-to-tummy means laying your baby on your chest while you recline — they get the strengthening benefit while feeling the comfort of your body. Lap time means draping them face-down across your legs, which also works wonders for burping. The tummy-down carry — supporting their chest and belly with your hand while you walk around — counts too. Even babywearing with the baby facing inward, awake and alert, gets them working those muscles.
Third: build it into what you’re already doing. After every diaper change, flip them over for a minute. After bath time, a quick session on a towel. The babies who do best with tummy time are the ones whose parents made it routine, not an event.
And fourth — the most important one — follow their lead. If they’re screaming, pick them up. Try again in twenty minutes. Short happy sessions beat long miserable ones every single time. You’re building a habit, not running a boot camp.
What Happens When You Skip It
This is the part that deserves a straight answer.
Babies who don’t get enough tummy time are more likely to develop flat spots on their heads. They’re more likely to hit motor milestones late. They may have weaker core strength going into toddlerhood, which affects balance, coordination, and confidence.
None of this is irreversible. But all of it is preventable.
The specialists at Strive see it regularly — parents who come in concerned about their baby’s head shape or delayed milestones, and the first question is always about tummy time. Not to assign blame. To establish a starting point. Because it’s never too late to begin.
The Bigger Picture
Something else happens during tummy time that doesn’t show up on a developmental checklist. When you get on the floor with your baby, when you sing to them and cheer for that wobbly head lift, when you rearrange the toys and try again after a meltdown — you’re bonding. You’re teaching them that hard things are worth doing. You’re showing up.
Five minutes a day. That’s the ask.
Your baby twenty years from now — strong, coordinated, confident — started right here. On the floor. Face down. Mad about it. And then, not.
About Strive Orthotics & Prosthetics
Strive is Michigan’s only pediatric-specialized orthotics and prosthetics clinic. Our lead pediatric specialist is trained at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare. We’re independent, family-run, and located right in Shelby Township—so Macomb County families get nationally credentialed pediatric expertise without driving across the metro.
Cranial helmets, SMOs, AFOs, scoliosis bracing, pediatric prosthetics. Free evaluations. Most insurance is accepted.
50714 Van Dyke Avenue, Shelby Township | 586-803-4325| striveop.com
* This story is a composite drawn from real patient journeys. Names and details have been changed to protect privacy.
