Why does my baby's head control seem worse?

It looked like going backwards

She used to hold her head up better, and now she tilted more during tummy time. That's genuinely unsettling to watch — everything is supposed to be improving.

We were told it wasn't a red flag unless it was persistent and always to one side, and then asked for that to be expanded, which was the right instinct because that sentence is doing a lot of work.

Why it can look worse before it gets better

Her head is getting heavier faster than her neck is getting stronger. So a baby who managed a decent lift at six weeks can look worse at ten, having gained a considerable amount of head to lift.

And motor development isn't a smooth line. It stalls, dips, and jumps. A bad week often comes right before something new.

On top of that, tired, hungry, recently fed, or simply fed up with the whole exercise all look exactly like weakness. Trying again at a different point in the day frequently produces a different baby.

The pattern worth noticing

Not how well she lifts. Which way she goes.

If she consistently turns or tilts to the same side, and resists turning the other way, that's the thing to mention. It can be tightness in the neck muscles, which is common, treatable, and responds much better to early physiotherapy than to waiting.

It also links to head shape — a baby who always looks one way puts pressure on the same spot.

What we watched for: does she turn both ways when something interesting is there, or does one side clearly cost her more?

Approaching her from alternate sides rather than always the same one, which sounds trivial and isn't — we were both right-handed and had unconsciously standardised.

Moving whatever she wanted to look at to her less-favoured side.

Alternating which end of the cot her head went., the window was to her left, and we saw she always lay that way, so the moment we changed the cribs direction in the room to have the window to the right it actually helped. It made the room an obstacle course but it helped.

And trying tummy time when she was alert and content, rather than fitting it in whenever we remembered. We started tummy time late. We thought a month or so had to pass before you could start. You can start pretty much the same day your baby comes home, unless the doctor mentions otherwise.