Hello!

My 3 month old little boy has started rolling from his back to his belly, however can’t roll back onto his back and still isn’t great holding his head up. Needless to say I’m worried that when he rolls onto his stomach in the middle of the night I won’t be there to help him and he is at risk of suffocating himself. I would really appreciate any tips to stop him from rolling during the night please.


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  • I note this question is a couple of years old, so I hope all went well with getting help for your son’s sleep movements.


  • they all do this, I wouldn’t worry. can u get a monitor?


  • Mum94125, foam is hot to lay in or against. A young baby cannot regulate his/her temperature so you risk overheating you baby. One baby I know rolled himself from on his tummy to his back at less than 7 weeks old. I got a phone call from his Mum saying…..is too smart for his own good. She had just bathed him and put him on a towel on his tummy while she dried his back and was about to turn him over.


  • last that i knew wedges where fine. once they get to a certain stage of development, and they roll too much and are too strong then you do have to remove them. i only used them for around 2months. they have a connecting bit of material that keeps them together


  • a sleep positioner… they are available at most baby stores, i used it for my daughter when she was a baby and it helped keep her in place the whole night.


  • Yea I agree with everyone else, We used the towel method placed under the cot sheet but my daughter (now 6yrs) couldnt hold her head up at all, she wouldn’t sleep unless on her belly so once she had her night feed we would re place with clean towels one on each side & placed a (SIDS) pillow at her feet also under the sheet so she couldn’t use her feet roll over. She hasn’t slept on her belly since she was 2M.

    My son, now 3 months has slept with the towels since birth & we haven’t had any problems… He Is also wrapped in his woombie so his arms are not free to help him push.
    I have made my own cot sheets to be tighter & less loose as the bought ones tended to get loose after a few washes.

    Hope it helps x

    Bless bless


  • If you are using a mattress protector you need to make sure there is enough bedding through which he can breathe, Normally babies who sleep on their tummy automatically turn their head to one side. Both of ours moved about more in the warm weather. It seemed to us that they moved away from the spot they were laying on earlier away to get away from the heat of the mattress. If you over-dress them in cold weather or cover them up too much they will do the same thing.


  • I thought that the wedges were not recommended anymore?


  • yeah i had the baby wedge too! it does do the job really well and it’s foam so it is soft and washable. i can’t remember the price but around $20-30 something like that.

    well worth it for peace of mind


  • My son was a tummy sleeper from a very young age, it’s a nervous time but there are some great tips here.


  • Both my boys could roll B2F from the day they were born, so I used a wedge set to keep them in place until they could roll both ways. They are specially made to keep bubs in place and are safer than pillows and towels. We got our from Big W. Here is a pic taken just before we stopped using them.


  • make sure no toys ect in the cot and if he wants to roll he will you cant stop it, just make sure there is air getting in all through hes cot (no cot wrap on it) and its free from toys and he will work out how to roll both ways,
    Dont stress to much check on him befrore you go to bed. My boys both kept rolling the m ore i tried to stop it the less sleep i was getting. the more they kept doing it.


  • if it is in the warmer months and its warm enough in your bubs room then just put less blankets on him and make sure he is in sleepwear he can move easily in, he is already rolling one way and it is not possible for you to watch him the whole time he sleeps so make it as easy as possible for him to roll back if and when he can. all 3 of my children did this from about 6 weeks on and all i could do was roll them back over myself when i woke and noticed but usually when i woke and checked again they had rolled back to their belly’s. so the main thing is to keep the cot clean and clear no bumpers no toys no pillows no extra unnecessary blankets. for your peace of mind my 15 month old still does this but from the minute he could roll back to his back i never rolled him during sleep, i put him to bed on his back and within 5 minutes he is on his tummy and i leave him that way. my 10 year old daughter did it my 6 year old son did it and now my baby does it. the older 2 only started sleeping on their back and sides when they were about 4 years old.


  • We rolled up small towels and put them under the fitted sheets, one each side so that our bubba’s couldn’t roll. The towels were not higher than shoulder height so baby could still turn head safely. One bub even preferred to be a little tiny bit tilted up on one side and slept better that way, too.
    You can also buy proper things that do the same, but we didn’t want to spend the money and used the towel solution.


  • Out of my five children, only one slept in a cot. I used to put big pillows enough for him to roll on his side, so if he roll on the other side he will definitely roll on his back again. I put one pillow on his feet horizontally so he can’t push himself under the cover and made sure both sides of his cover were properly tucked under the matress so his movement will be limited. It worked for my son, hope it will help with your baby.


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