Baby rolling in cot HELP!!

[enbh]

My DD will be 5 months on Sunday.
Since around 3.5 months she has been able to confidently roll from her back to her front. At first she was just doing this during her time on the mat but now she's doing it in her sleep too. It really worries me

I rang the health visitor, her advice was, as baby can't yet roll front to back, the safest thing to do is to keep waking up in the night to roll her back, which I have been doing.

It's been nearly 6 weeks and I think I average about 3 hours broken sleep per night if I'm lucky. The rolling her back wakes her up and it takes ages for her to settle again.

We do over an hour of tummy time per day to help her try to learn to roll back but she's not interested in it.

Any advice or stories welcome... I'm sleeping less than she did as a newborn!

You can buy anti rollover pillows which may help?
www.kiddies-kingdom.com/other-bedding-products/6693-jane-anti-rollover-cushion-soft-0m-white.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5NnbBRDaARIsAJP-YR-sb_ydHNP7tMlKtHEbcu5_Ck5mn8dN0XPEKvshjn63_Qmpo75IQNcaAh66EALw_wcB#fo_c=164&fo_k=ae442a04279e1280c3f535cdfd6f0422&fo_s=gplauk

I would leave her be. If you're really worried, get a movement monitor.

I thought sleep positioners were a suffocation risk?

I feel inclined to leave her too but don't want to ignore the advice of the health visitor. She seemed to think it's of concern until baby can confidently roll both ways.

This isn't consistent with Lullaby Trust advice. Lullaby Trust say that you should place the baby to sleep on their back but not to worry if they roll over, if you notice you can roll them back, but not that you need to wake up specifically to do so!

Those anti rollover pillows are a suffocation hazard and not recommended.

Just leave her be. If she has no medical problems and can lift and turn her head the risk is extremely low of her having any issues. The health visitor has to tell you to turn her back as thats the NHS advice re SIDS.
My son has always slept on his front since birth as that is the only way he could sleep. There are conflicting studies about sleeping position. There are a few studies which say babies are actually safer on their fronts. Like anything else you just need to weight up the risks yourself v your quality of sleep. Babies who die from SIDS when on their front in an otherwise safe sleeping environment, usually do so because they have some underlying medical problem which means they do not wake to turn their head when their air supply is compromised and the younger/smaller the baby the higher the risk.... As your baby is nearly 6 months and sounds quite able to turn the risks go right right down.
So personally id just let her be if thats how shes sleeping. I wouldnt think the absolutely tiny risk was worth the very real sleep deprivation.

and yeah I would think any positioning pillows etc were actually more of a risk than just leaving her on her front in an otherwise safe sleeping environment

What Haribosmarties said. I was you a few months ago OP! If baby is happy on her tummy she'll be okay. Also it's likely she can roll into her back but just isn't interested. Once my DD mastered rolling onto her front it was all she wanted to do - until the crawling started . Any day now your LO will surprise you by rolling in every direction you can imagine and then it's just no problem at all.

@haribosmarties - everything you have said is correct, I think logically I know the risks are small. DD is 5 months and on the 80% so physically she looks more like a 6m baby.

@LassoOfTruth so glad to hear someone else has been through this! All the websites say they will turn front to back first but not my DD!

She actually did turn over front to back once but never since!

I think because it's just hammered into you not to let them sleep on their front, my midwife said never - even for one sleep - to have them sleep on their front...seems hard to suddenly disregard the advice I followed so stringently.

What about putting a rolled up blanket or something under the sheet to make it harder for her to roll over? I wouldn't worry about it too much though like others have said she will probably figure out how to roll the other way soon!

Don’t put anything in her cot to try to prop her. I was told that if they turned themselves over to let them stay there. It may be a slightly increased SIDS risk but that’s already reducing at her age and it’s a very real risk if you crashing the car, dropping her or making some other disasterous mistake our first of sheer exhaustion otherwise.

This might help :) mamaot.com/10-tips-for-helping-babies-learn-to-roll/

Mine rolls onto her front and has done since 5 months. She's 8 months now. She much more comfortable that way. I bought a movement sensor for peace if mind but to be honest we've had false alarms with it which have made me more anxious so if you feel ok without it I wouldn't bother. Maybe a camera monitor as you can see them breathing.

She started a month or so ago to sometimes roll onto her back and sleep a little.

Try not to worry, good neck control is key. Shes nearly out of the worst time for SIDS. If that's the way She wants to sleep then there's not a lot you can do about it. Waking up to roll her back isn't sustainable.

I wouldn't roll her back. I had the same with mine at 5 months. It wasn't long til he could roll the other way, but in the meantime I let him sleep on his tummy. He loves it still :)

seems hard to suddenly disregard the advice I followed so stringently.

You're not disregarding advice. You are not placing baby tummy down, your baby is choosing to roll on her stomach. She probably, like my baby is enjoying sleeping like that. Look at her when she is asleep, no doubt she is not sticking her head face down, but lieing to the side so she can breathe?

It worried me at first, but I just went with it after being shit scared the first three or four times. If she wants to roll back to her back and can't she will probably wake up and let you know.

I think this SIDS thing is over done sometimes and just makes us scared for no reason, a lot of it is genetic apparently. Your baby has neck control now and she is a lot more sturdy, she is no longer a delicate new born

It's been nearly 6 weeks and I think I average about 3 hours broken sleep per night if I'm lucky. The rolling her back wakes her up and it takes ages for her to settle again.

Then so is she- averaging 3 hours of broken sleep per night that is! Not only is this bad for you, but bad for poor baby who won't be getting enough sleep either.

I think you've been given bad advice tbh.

I really wouldn't worry about it. If baby has learned to roll then they will roll into whatever position they like when asleep regardless of how you put them down.

She will soon master rolling both ways.

And you will drive yourself round the bend constantly getting up to turn her.

I have honestly never heard that advice before. It doesn't strike me as an ideal way to train baby to sleep for longer stretches at night. Quite the opposite really.

Does she roll both ways? Both my girls favoured rolling one way so I would lay them down so they were up against the cot on that side so they couldn't roll.

@miniloco She only rolled one way for ages, to the left, so we put her up against the left hand side of the cot which worked for a little while!

She's mastered the other way now though so no matter which position I put her in now she is on her tummy soon enough.

My 3yo ds slept on his tummy from about 4wo. It was the only way he slept longer than 15minutes. He lift his head from the mattress and turn it to the other side so he wasn't getting his face stuck. It turned out he has sleep apnoea which has since been corrected by surgery and the surgeon said that his breathing would have been slightly better laying on his tummy as it stopped the way his tonsils and adenoids were occluding his breathing.

It just seems so scary! I guess there is only so much I can do without becoming exhausted and even then I can't be there watching every minute.

Just have to hope she learns to turn back. I think at this rate she will sit up sooner than turn back over!

But you've had loads of reassurance on here from Mums who have not only had babies on their tummies from a similar age, but also newborn babies.

And some really shitty advice from a clueless HV

She will learn, but it doesn't matter, she can move her head to the side. She's done it once so she can do it, she might not want to.

I had this exact fear 8 weeks ago. I was told by the Lullaby Trust - as someone said above- if you happen to wake up and she's on her front, turn her over, but don't purposely wake up to check. Baby can turn her head, she'll be fine. I found this reassuring.
In tummy time I kept showing her how to roll tummy to back, where to out her legs and arms and how to push. Not sure if it helped or not but she did figure it out and now rolls around for England. But still rolls on to her tummy at night and stays there!

My DS did exactly the same thing from a similar age. We had a movement monitor so I didn't worry too much. He's 11 months now and still sleeps on his front.