Sleeping on Belly

My son is almost 4 months old. We always put him down on his back but in the last week or so he insists on rolling over to his stomach. He can roll both ways but stays on his tummy. Everytime I check on him, I roll him back to his back. Should I just let him be? Of course I am worried about SIDS but 5 minutes after I lay him on his back, he rolls to his tummy. None of my other kids did this. ?????

 

my pedi said if he can roll let him be - my son would ONLY sleep on his belly from about 3 mos on -

 

I think that the general rule, is that once they are strong enough to roll, it is safe to leave them on their bellies to sleep.

 

All my kids rolled very early and with DD#1 I used to sneak into her room and roll her back over. Which would almost always wake her up. My Pedi at the time said that if they can roll over than they have the head control needed to protect themselves from things like SIDS. He said that the reason they give for the rate of SIDS dropping drastically at around 6 months is because thats when most babies have already mastered the skill of rolling over.
Try not to worry. On a good note all my kids slept much better once they could sleep on their tummys.

Tiffaney

 

Thanks everyone! I thought that I had heard it was okay once they were rolling.

 

I agree, once they're rolling, let them be!

 

I have been dealing with this for several weeks now. I always sneak in and turn them back over on their backs. If I do it within 15-20 minutes of them falling asleep, they wake up briefly and then doze right off again. Still, they spend a lot of time sleeping on their stomachs. It bothers me most at night because I am not checking on them as often. One of them had her face planted straight down into the mattress, that really scared me, but a friend of mine has a daughter who is the same age who does that every night and can still breathe that way, so try not to worry! That said, I keep flipping mine over...
B)