rolling baby

[charlieropersmum]

DS aged 15 weeks is obsessed with his new rolling ability. Keep finding him face down in his cot though fast asleep. He doesn't even turn his face to the side. I roll him back onto his back and next time I check he's on his tummy again. I know once they can do this apparently they can get themselves out of trouble but sometimes when he rolls in the day he gets stuck. Any advice please; can't stay awake all night to turn him obviously but can't sleep with worrying about it either.

[Nemo1977]

you can roll two towels up next to him to try and stop him from turning over. Can he roll back again?

[charlieropersmum]

He can roll both ways but I've not seen him do both one after the other if you know what I mean, so I'm not convinced he could roll straight back if he wanted to. Isn't there a risk of him suffocating up against the towels though? Keeps getting his legs stuck in the bars too but I thought I might put his sleeping bag on to avoid that.

[romilly]

charlieropersmum - i have been having the exact same rolling antics with my DD for the last fortnight. you will see various threads in "behaviour" saying help! what do i do???? which i have been agonizing on! My little one is 19 weeks old but learnt to roll over at about 15 weeks and kept getting stuck in the night and not turning her head! its such a worry isnt it. i basically ended up being on anti-suffocation watch for about 12 nights she just kept on rolling back as soon as i turned her but always face-planted and grinding her little nostrils into the mattress.

finally, we had a breakthrough when the weather cooled down (it started in the heatwave when i had her just in a nappy as her room temp was a stifling 30 degrees - hideous, no wonder she was restless). anyhow now it is cooler i put her in a lightweight sleeping bag and tucked the end into the foot of the mattress and then wedge a rolled up sheet in too, so it is really tight. this stopped her propelling her little legs up high enough to roll over. worked a treat for about 2 nights (of much needed sleep for both of us). now she has sussed how to twist over but she doesnt go right over flat onto her face, so i am still much much happier at nights.

all the other methods of putting in towels, rolls, wedges, etc . are not advised - they kick over them anyway and they become a suffocation risk. or overheating risk.

hth. really feel for you - i know how stressing it is. let me know how you get on.

[romilly]

p.s. i make sure the sheet at the end is really tight under the mattress so cant be kicked out.

[Tallbird]

We went through this with DD2 from when she was around 11 weeks - scoured loads of threads for advice, and came to the conclusion that there's actually nothing that you can do. I know that it's pretty stressful, and that no one advises putting babies down to sleep on their fronts - but if they decide to sleep that way...
Suffice to say that she is now a happy 11 month old (who still generally prefers to sleep on her front).
My mum said that when I was a baby, they were advised to put babies to sleep on their fronts - and we seem to have survived OK.
If you are still worried, try having a chat to your health visitor (though they will probably offer reassurance and nothing much else).

[charlieropersmum]

thank you , feel much better now. i reckon it's payback for me showing off with my ncT group about his superior rolling skills! isn't typing difficult with small person on your knees????

[romilly]

i was really chuffed when she first did it too - and stupidly gave her massive applause and encouragement! i've been told by the h/v that she'll probably be crawling very soon. get ready for the babyproofing.

hope you both get some sleep tonight

[HJ06]

ds is 15 weeks, i finds him in all sorts of funny places, including feet at the head of his cot. so now i roll up 2 blankets with a sheet over them and put him between in a grow bag, so far it has worked.
although he cant roll onto his belly yet(think its his hands constantly in his mouth that stops him) he can roll onto his back and drags himself about a foot when is on his front.

[Jaynerae]

If you are really worried about them rolling over, you can buy a special device to stop exactly this problem. It's called the Safe T Sleep Sleepwrap, see WWW.safetsleep.com.
Good luck

My DD is 2.10 now but I recall worrying about this myself when she started to roll - I kept getting up to turn her over!

[charlieropersmum]

The grobag seemed to work quite well last night, he wriggled loads but was still on his back or side whenever I went in. I really hope he won't be crawling soon, my house is tiny and a nightmare for crawlers. Perhaps should give him to my mum for a few years until all these difficult phases are over!!

[romilly]

hows it going charlieropersmum?