baby turning over while sleeping

[Caznbab]

My 6 month old (second baby) learned how to turn over last month. Since learnign he has now taken to doing it in his sleep. Unfortunatley he will only sleep on his belly - we've tried very hard to get him to sleep on his back and on his side but he just won't. Now the problem is that he flips over from his belly on to his back - and then can;t get back to sleep. This has become a real problem as I am back at work and he's "flipping over" about 10-15 times per night and I have to get up to "flip" him back on to his belly. Have tried letting him cry it out, have tried rolling up a towel/blanket alongside him to make it more difficult to turn over - but nothing has worked! Any ideas?

If he is strong, mobile and can lift his head, turn over, etc., then that is not the same situation as a much younger baby who finds themselves on their stomach, unable to move themselves out of danger. As long as there's nothing around that would get in the way of his face, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I didn't flip my DD back over once she could turn herself. We kept pillows, duvets and toys out of the way but otherwise let her position herself by this stage.

Do remember that by 6 months the risk of SIDS is much lower overall than for a newborn.

We left DS on his tummy and had no toys in his cot - he started just before 6 months. Once he did it, we started putting him down on his front which he much prefers.

i would work with him in the day to help him learn to flip back-to-front. You could place small toys to one side to encourage him to flip first onto one side.

It's very frustrating - but they all do it and soon he'll be able to right himself into his fave sleeping position all by himself.

Thanks for the replies- will def try working with him to get him to learn to roll back again on his own!! Would be nice to have a night of uninterrupted sleep - plus I think my boss would appreciate my not being quite so wrecked every day at work :)

We had this scenario and within about 10 days he had learnt to roll back again. Now he can sleep on his back as well as his front, side, upside down, backside in the sir, whatever

It's easy to say, but if you keep turning him over it will take longer for him to learn to sleep on his back. If you can bear it, perhaps at the weekend, try letting him drop off on his back, or maybe try naptime on his back once he's exhibited lots of tired cues?

Thanks for that reply. This morning at 6:00 he woke up - not from hunger (my husband had given him a bottle at 2:00am) - I had given him some baby paracetomol at 4am for his gums (something I'm not thrilled about but I didn';t want him to suffer) so at 6:00am I went in and turned him back on his belly. then i hid beside the cot checking to see what he'd do - and he just kept going on to his back- so eventually - I decided to bite the bullet and leave him on his back - he cried for ages - i resisted the temptation to go in and turn him again - and the general whinging combined with peiods of dozing lasted 2 hours - then at 8am - I finally fed him his morning bottle as per schedule. am going to keep up the putting him on his back thing as suggested because he really just has to learn. I'm not really sleeping anyway - so I guess listening to a bit (or a lot) of extra crying isn't going to make much difference.

6am was and still is DS's time to wake up. Have never managed to extend it! Sometimes he has bum wind come the morning so we just get him up and get it out. I hope it works out for you.