So my son turned four and a half months yesterday. He celebrated by rolling over from his back to his stomach. A bit of effort at first but he is now doing it regularly. So that’s all good. The problem is that he is now doing it whilst in the crib and he hasn’t figured out how to roll back onto his back.
So we are now worried about his sleeping. He rolled over numerous times last night which meant a sleepless night for us. Any advice on how best to handle our rolling little guy? Thanks!
you can get a little device that keeps them from rolling over - it’s two soft tubes, connected by a strip of cloth - you put the little guy in between the tubes, on his back, and he shouldn’t be able to roll over. I can’t remember the name of it right now, but if you go to BabiesRUs section of Toys RUs you should be able to find one.
I take it back - looks like ToysRUS has stopped selling sleep positioners because of a suffocation risk, as set out in this article. I got nothin’, I’m afraid. Piper Cub managed to survive the hazards of a sleep positioner.
He might be a little frustrated for a night or two while he figures it out, but he will. Other than that, there’s no reason flipping over should present a sleep problem. Just take everything out of the crib so he has the whole space to work with.
Welcome to the part of parenting when they no longer stay where you put them 
I’m not clear on what the problem is. Does he not sleep when he’s on his stomach, or are you worried about him sleeping in that position? Our pediatrician basically told us that you don’t need to worry about babies’ sleeping positions once they can roll over by themselves, at around 4 or 5 months.
If there’s no pillow in his crib and if his mattress is the standard firm crib-type mattress, it shouldn’t be an issue.
“Roll, baby, roll, all night long.”
If your concern is SIDS, no need to worry about it. Generally, if they can move enough to roll over, they are at a vastly reduced risk than a kid who couldn’t roll over. As noted upthread, as long as there aren’t any bumpers or blankets in the crib with him, he should be fine. You really don’t need to get up to check and roll him onto his back.
If the issue is him waking himself up, not much you can do about that but wait it out and encourage him to learn to get himself back to sleep. Definitely respond if he cries, but you can just gently turn him over and pat his tummy or shush him or whatever works until he starts to doze again.
and as an aside, they are very cute when they’e sleeping with their bums up.
I’m going to take a wild guess that this is your first baby. First-time parent problems are so cute.
All four of my kids are “tummy” sleepers, despite my best efforts to encourage them to sleep on their backs when they were newborns. As soon as they were physically able to flip themselves over, they’d snuggle up with their little butts in the air and fall fast asleep that way. And woe to you, should you try to flip them back over.
Just let sleeping babies lie. 
Like many of life’s problems, this can easily be solved by judicious application of a staple gun.
I thought that was high explosives?
Oh right, that’s in the diaper.
The problem is that he can’t roll back and cries or that he can’t roll back and you freak out?
I was a tummy sleeper (nowadays I’m a side sleeper but may sleep face-down, never face-up). Middlebro was a tummy sleeper. Littlebro was a tummy sleeper. Same-age cousin was a tummy sleeper. Nephew would have been a tummy sleeper, but his parents put him into one of those blankets with sleeves and, since he couldn’t turn or remove the sleeves, he learned to sleep face-up. Niece refused to accept the blanket, she’s got good lungs and is a tummy sleeper.
While I’m not going to claim that my family is normal, tummy sleeping didn’t seem to have any negative effect on our overall physical well-being.
Same advice as everyone else in the thread - clearly you have a tummy sleeper and according to my maternal health nurse, besides removing all soft bedding and toys from the cot (including bumpers and quilts, best to use a sleeping bag) there is nothing you can do.
If you are still not comfortable (and I wasn’t when my kid started the same thing at 5 months) you can get a movement monitor which alerts you if they stop breathing. Its not necessary, but can make you feel a little more at ease while your little one is sleeping.
This.
There’s been a lot of research over the past few years that tummy sleeping in infants may be a contributing factor to SIDS, so this is something that new parents worry about. (As a relatively new parent, I must say that it seems that the pædiatric health researchers and the toy industry are collaborating on “How many things can we think of to make new parents worry?”) So I sympathize with Lochdale.
One thing that you might do, Lochdale, is put a small fan near the crib to run while he’s sleeping. Some of the articles I read when we were at this stage with the Piper Cub indicated that in addition to removing the bumpers and so on, keeping a fan circulating the air can help. One of the theories is that tummy sleepers may not be getting enough fresh air, leading to a slight build-up of CO2 near their mouths. Keeping the air circulating prevents that from happening, even if they are on their tummies.
Two words: duct tape.
I’m a '68 vintage. Back then, SIDS research said babies should sleep face up, so Mom was completely freaked out when I flopped on my belly and cried my despair to Olympus whenever she flipped me back up. As a teacher, she was expected to spread Culture and Knowledge not only among her students, but also among their families: Childcare was one of her favorite subjects, and “children must sleep face-up!” had been banged on. And on. And on. And… Another one which had been banged on was feeding schedules: she made me go hungry for one hour six times a day for over a week because the times I was hungry were not the times she’d been taught I had to be hungry. Thankfully she mentioned it to the pediatrician, who told her to throw the books away and “just feed her when she asks”. My same-age cousin wasn’t hungry as often: Aunt would wake her for scheduled feedings and then need to deal with a baby who was more sleepy than hungry :smack:. Again the pediatrician intervened and all was, if not fine, more restful.
By the time she freaked out about Middlebro in '74, research said “children must sleep face-down!” It’s been face up, face down, it’s now back to face up. I’d really like to know whether the studies compare “% of children who died from SIDS and slept face-up with children who died from SIDS and slept face-down” or “% of children who slept face-down and died from SIDS and % of children who slept face-up and died from SIDS” - because if it’s the first and SIDS happens to be position-unrelated, you will get more kids who die from it in whatever position are doctors recomending at the time.
I sympathize with Lochdale in that I know how terrifying it is to have a tiny little person who depends completely on you and you really, really don’t want to screw up… but “let sleeping babies lie” is magnificent advice, whether it’s about position or about feeding times.
Thank you guys for the responses. Certainly makes me feel a lot better knowing that I am not alone. I guess we will just watch and listen as best we can. The little guy is cute whichever way he sleeps!
and in a couple of years time, you’ll likely find yourself worrying about something completely different, as a I outline in this thread: I’ve been starting to worry that the PiperCub is colourblind.