Baby rolls to tummy in sleep

[FirstTimer2020]

Hi everyone!

I posted not long ago about worrying that now my baby is rolling, she will roll on her front and suffocate.

Everyone was really lovely and told me not to worry and that she would move her head, etc.

Except this isn't the case. I've watched her a few times now and when she rolls to the front, she smooshes her nose right into the mattress and makes no attempt to adjust her head to a better position. On the first might, I woke up to her in this position and it really scared me.

I've now had a week of no sleep, worrying about whether she will be ok or not.

Just looking to see if anyone has similar stories or any advice?

My DD does this - sleeps face down flat on the mattress, sometimes with a hand under her forehead (she wakes up with a handprint on her face and my husband says she looks like one of Sarauman's Orcs).

Its scary, but it hasn't done her any harm. For the first few weeks I'd go in every hour and turn her head - then it was pointed out to me that she was sleeping 8hrs straight, and i was getting worse sleep than when she was a newborn.

How old is she? This might just be how she likes to sleep... babies are weirdos!

Yes!! This! She has slept so well since 2 weeks old and through the night from about 8 weeks. She's now 5 months old and I haven't slept properly in a week due to being so conscious that she won't adjust her head!

URGH it is so hard to turn off the worry... but you get used to it. This morning i realised that last night i didn't go in to check on her ONCE. Big achievement.

That's amazing! Well done you! I can't wait for the moment all these little anxieties calm down a bit!

Can she roll both ways?

During the daytime during floor time can she roll both front to back and back to front? If she can, you really have no worries. Just put her to sleep on her back and let her find her own position. If she can't roll both ways, do lots of practicing during the day so that she learns.

I am pretty sure my DD did the same at about 5 months. Once she has good neck strength she will turn her head in her sleep. Sometimes they just like to sleep on their tummy. To this day (she is 18 months) she always sleeps on her front. It's so easy to worry, and I did too, but if she is rolling herself over then she has the ability to tilt her head to the side.

She rolls forward easily but rolling back she isn't great at which is why I'm more conscious at night. I know she has pushed herself off the sides to roll back before but I don't think it would be her first instinct if she's drowsy. So because of this, I am rolling her onto her back every time anyway.

She does have amazing neck strength but it just seems she doesn't want to move her head, it's like she likes having her face in the mattress. I think I'll just have to keep doing lots of tummy time until she rolls back without a problem

Mine sleeps like this too. When he first started, we kept turning his head but he would either turn his head back down or nuzzle his face deep into the edge of the sleep pod. He just prefers to have his face pressed against something. For the first few night we would just sit and watch him breathing to make sure and he was fine. We still check on him now, but every few hours or if we are passing by the room. I too was terrified to start but once you see them breathing it calms the fears a lot

Argh I remember this. Bang on 5m, mine kept rolling on To her front. She couldn’t roll front to back so she’d be stuck (I can’t remember when she learnt this but not for ages - like 8m or something!). Sometimes she’d wake up because of this, more often than not she’d just stay sleeping on her front.

I have no advice, other than to reiterate what youve been told previously, that she will move her head if she can’t breathe. I know you found her with her head in her mattress, but as she was still alive she presumably was able to breathe still. It’s really hard, I remember checking all the time and constantly rolling her back.

Oh my I could have written this myself! I'm in the same position. This has been going on for a week now. I'm so worried I keep checking on her every 15 minutes. I haven't had a proper sleep. She keeps turning on to her face. I move her sideways and she turns to her face again. We just repeat this the whole night till morning.

I had this problem, we ended up using a monitor with a breathing sensor which provided a bit of reassurance.

Can you get a secondhand breathing sensor? We have a secondhand angelcare one, I bought that and a video monitor. The breathing monitor works even through a sprung cotbed mattress, as we found when we picked up the baby and forgot to switch off the monitor! Might give you some reassurance. You could do that and maybe sleep in with baby as well.

Thanks for your replies everyone!

I don't have a breathing monitor and I have thought about getting one, but I also think I would worry about whether it was doing its job correctly if I solely relied on that to alert me. So I would probably worry more then than if I just got up to check 🙈

I think I will just keep a very close watch on her when I next see her go on her front and see what she does. Hopefully if I become reassured then it won't worry me so much when she is in her own room!

When my kids were babies the advice was for them to sleep on their tummies. And I was a children's nurse before that and all babies (including prems half the time) were put to sleep on their tums inline with current advice.

It's clearly better for them to be on their backs as current research has shown but only in very rare cases is it dangerous and once they can turn over the risk is even lower.

Babies have a strong instinct to live - and that means breathing and so long as they can turn their head they will if they need to.

(The reason for tummy sleeping was that if they vomited on their back they would choke. We now know they don't because, when necessary they will turn their head)