Rolling Over and Swaddling

[Anonymous]

My son is 4.5 months and has just started to roll over onto his tummy in his crib at all hours of the night. For some reason, he HATES it and screams until I come and turn him over. He is not doing this just to get me to tend to him. He is sincerely terrified. He has plenty of tummy time during the day and likes it, but for some reason, when he is in his crib, it is scary to him. I tried using the sleep positioner (on his back and side) and he just rolls over it. I tried letting his cry until he learned to like being on his tummy or rolled onto his back, but he screamed so much it made him throw up. He is constantly trying to roll over in his crib now. It is almost like it is an involuntary reflex! He hates the end result, but he cannot stop from doing it.

We had stopped swaddling him at 3.5 months and he has been doing find without it. He got so upset tonight, however, that I swaddled him to see if it would calm him down. For 30 minutes, he screamed and nothing would stop the crying. The second I swaddled him, he fell asleep immediately. It was like he was in his old comfort zone. My questions are:

1) Any suggestions about the rolling over thing?

2) I am worried about the risk of SIDS. Is it possible for him to roll over while he is swaddled and have difficulty because he does not have the use of his arms. He is certainly able to break out of his swaddle. I think that he would break out of it before rolling over. Did any of you swaddle at this age?

3) What are your general thoughts on swaddling a 4.5 month old? Does anyone think that it will help with this rolling over situation?

[hellbennt]

3a) swaddling thoughts in general:

swaddle for as long as they want! up to 6 moths, even!

BUT I don’t know about the rolling over thing?

my suggestion: swaddle at nap time and OBSERVE the nap to see if he rolls over or tries to roll over…then you’ll know 😉

[Anonymous]

I agree to keep swaddling him. I wish my little guy liked it as much as yours does. I think it’s my Baby Whisperer book that suggests swaddling for AT LEAST 4 months and usually up to 6 months.

My other suggestion would be to work on getting him to roll back the other way during the day.

I remember this stage VIVIDLY. It was such a pain to go in and roll them back over and get them to settle back down. It passed fairly quickly though. My guess would be that he will either be rolling over the other way soon or he will figure out that it’s not so bad to be on his tummy.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips girls! He rolled from front to back at 8 weeks, but he now acts like he has forgotten how to do it. He has done it once or twice lately, but it is no longer a regular thing for him. He is swaddled right now and I am just going to leave him. He looks so peaceful compared to earlier! Hopefully, he will not attempt to roll over while he is swaddled. He definitely finds swaddling comforting. I think that he likes the restraint. I thought that he was supposed to grow out of that by now, but I guess not. Maybe he will even sleep longer.

[Anonymous]

I swaddled Alana until about 7 months or so I think. She did so much better that way. Interestingly enough she never actually rolled when swaddled…go figure. Given they usually use the arms and legs as momentum for the roll my guess is he would break free first. Just a guess thought. evergreenie2008-01-10 04:43:14

[Anonymous]

I swaddled Dagney until about 5 -5 1/2 months, but she preferred it with her arms out, so I’d swaddle from the chest down, nice and tight. That way, she still had access to her arms and hands, and I felt a little better if she were to roll over. Once she started rolling I always used one of the Swaddleme blankets that velcroes shut. Swaddling with the regular blanket at that point made me nervous, but the velcroed Swaddleme wouldn’t come unravelled.

[Anonymous]

I’m with Naomi! I CLEARLY remember how awful it was before Sarah could comfortably roll back and forth on her own. I remember several nights having to go flip her back over in the crib. One time for a nap I let her cry (knowing she had flipped to her tummy) and when the crying stopped I went to go peek on her…sure enough she had fallen asleep on her tummy! That was UNHEARD of for her! It WAS a rough stage (she didn’t even like tummy time when she was awake) but we had to tough it out and let her learn. You have a slightly different situation b/c Sarah never threw up from being so upset on her tummy. Hopefully he’ll get the hang of it before too long!

Sarah had to be swaddled until 5.5 months. It was a big deal for us to finally be able to stop using the swaddle blanket with her. There was one instance when she was around 2 months old that she rolled over while swaddled and probably would have suffocated if I wasn’t within ear shot to hear her crying. We always used the swaddle me blankets (with extra velcro when she got older!). It was like she was in a mini straight jacket!

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