The first moment that your baby moves without your help is quite a moment to remember. All of a sudden, they aren’t so helpless anymore, they can move!
Rolling over is one of the very first physical milestones that your baby will reach.
Learning how to roll is important for your baby’s muscle development and a precursor to sitting up and crawling. Most babies will learn to roll on their own without any assistance, but if you looking to help them out with the process, we have some tips for you.
Our Top 5 Tips for Helping Your Baby Roll Over
Give Baby Lots of Tummy Time
The most important thing to keep in mind when helping your baby learn to roll is that you need to allow them lots of time to practice! This means lots and lots of tummy time! Most babies learn to roll from their belly to their back first before they roll from back to belly.
Although many babies struggle to enjoy tummy time, it is very important for their physical development. If they do not do tummy time, they will not learn to roll. They will not learn to roll in your arms or in a swing or bouncer.
Experts suggest offering 90 minutes of tummy time total in a day once your baby is over 2 months. This sounds like a lot, but it does not have to be (and shouldn’t be!) all 90 minutes at once. It can be just 9 ten-minute sessions throughout the day.
The most important skill for babies to work on during tummy time is lifting their head off the ground using their arms and neck strength. They need to be able to lift their head and shoulders up in order to roll over.
Place toys, pictures, or books around your baby’s head for them to look at. Hopefully, this will inspire them to lift their heads and make tummy time more tolerable.
Once they are able to hold their head and shoulders up for some period of time in tummy time, you can offer toys just above and slightly behind their head. This may encourage them to reach up and roll to their back to access it.
Encourage Side Play
Before babies learn to roll all the way over, they will roll to their side. You can also place them on their side to start, which will encourage the completion of the roll. You can do this while working on rolling both from tummy to back and from back to tummy.
It is important to remember to take turns allowing them to play on both their left and right side. Even though they may favor one side it is important they learn to roll both ways. Place toys just out of reach on their side to encourage them to reach for the toy and possibly roll over to get it.
If they will not stay on their side to play, you can roll up a towel or blanket behind their back to keep them there.
Don’t Forget Back Play!
It is important to allow time for your baby to play laying on their back. In order for them to learn how to roll from back to tummy, they need to start on their back.
If you have a playmat, hang toys above their body for them to practice grabbing at. Place toys on each of their sides to encourage your baby to reach towards and eventually roll to them.
While your baby is on their back, allow them to work on kicking their legs. Babies need leg strength to roll over as well. You can place toys above their feet to kick at or place something under their feet that will make a fun noise such as a musical toy or aluminum foil. Socks with rattles on them are great because they encourage your baby to kick to make noise and also bring their feet up to their hands to grab.
Another skill you can practice with your baby while they are on their back is hip rotation. Babies need to rotate their hips in order to fully rollover. You can help them learn this by taking their legs and gently rotating them to each side. Sing a song while you do it to make it fun!
Cross the Midline
In order for babies to roll from back to belly, they need to be able to cross the midline. This means that they need to be able to cross their arms and legs over the middle of their body.
Before your baby is able to grasp for toys well, you can help them cross their midline by moving their arms across their body yourself. Clapping their hands together while singing a song is a great way to do this.
Once they can interact with toys, help your baby learn to cross their midline by offering toys right over their belly. They will need to reach their arm over their midline in order to grab it. If you have a playmat with hanging toys, place the hanging toys at their midline to help with midline reaching.
To give your baby more of a challenge, offer a toy just over their midline to one side and hold down the hand closest to that side. This will encourage them to use their other hand to reach over their midline.
Roll Them Yourself
Before your baby can roll on by themselves, you can help them learn the feeling and motion of rolling by rolling them yourself.
On their back, carefully place one hand on their shoulder and another on their hips. Slowly help them over to onto their tummy. (Make sure they have good head control before doing this.) On their tummy, do the same thing to roll them onto their back. Make sure to practice rolling both ways and on all sides!
You can also use a blanket to help them when they get closer to being able to roll on their own. Place your baby on a blanket and very gently lift one side of the blanket up to encourage the beginning of the rolling process. From there, see if they can complete the roll on their own.
Stages of Rolling Over
Reflexive/Accidental Rolling
Although is possible, most babies under 2-3 months are not doing a typical roll using their muscles. If your baby is rolling tummy to back and is younger than 2-3 months, it is possible they are just doing what is called a reflexive or accidental roll. I thought my daughter was a very advanced 1-month old who could roll, but then I learned about reflexive and accidental rolling and realized I was wrong.
Reflexive rolling is when a baby rolls from their tummy onto their back in order to clear their airway. Sometimes placing newborns directly on their tummy can start to restrict their airway. This is why it is recommended to use a boppy pillow or another support pillow for tummy time when they are very young. Who knew babies had such a cool life-saving technique?
Babies can also do an accidental roll. This can happen when the baby lift’s their head early on and it is so heavy compared to their body that the weight of it is pulling them over. Or, they may get so frustrated with the fact that they are in tummy time that they arch their back and it causes them to roll over.
Although these situations are technically “rolling”, it is not considered meeting the milestone because they are not using their muscles for it.
Emerging Roll
Usually, before your baby rolls all the way over, they will roll to their side. This means they are close to rolling over all the way and it is a good time to use all of the tips listed above. While they are in the emerging roll stage, they may roll over all the way once or twice but then stop for a while. Your baby may be in the emerging roll stage anywhere from 3-5 months, with tummy to back rolling usually coming first.
In any stage of development, your child may learn to do something but then stop for a while. This usually happens when they start working on a different skill in another area of development, such as learning to babble.
It also takes a while for a skill to be solidified, which is why you should continue to use these tips frequently throughout the emerging roll stage.
Mastered Roll
By the time they are in the mastered roll stage, you may not need to use any of the tips above. At this point, they should be able to purposefully roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy, on both their right and left sides. At this point, they may even roll over a few times to get where they need to go!
You may see this mastered roll around 6-7 months. They might also be sitting up by this point and getting ready to crawl, but it is still important to provide lots of tummy time and black play opportunities for them to roll even after they seem to have mastered it.
FAQ about Teaching your Baby to Roll Over
What are the signs that my baby might be rolling over soon?
If your baby is pushing up through their arms in tummy time, grabbing at toys while on their back, or rolling to their side on their own, they may be close to rolling over on their own.
At what age should my baby be rolling over?
All babies are different but on average babies learn to roll from their tummy to their back anywhere between 3 and 6 months. They learn to roll from their back to their tummy between 4 and 7 months.
Do some babies never roll over?
Yes, it is possible that your baby may skip rolling and go right to crawling or scooting.
Rolling is a good skill for babies to have, so make sure you try to encourage it as much as you can. Although never learning to roll can happen, if your baby is not rolling by 7 months contact your pediatrician.
Can I place my baby on their tummy for sleep after they roll?
No, babies should always be placed on their back for sleep until age 1. That being said, if they roll to their tummy on their own after placing them on their back, it is fine to leave them there. If they roll on their own it means they should be strong enough to roll back if needed.
If your baby is rolling this means it is also time for them to have their arms out of the swaddle if they are still being swaddled. They now need their arms to push them up to roll over. It is no longer safe for their arms to be constricted. This is a good time to move to a sleepsack.
Wrap Up
Most babies learn to roll over eventually without your help, but it is never a bad thing to help them along. Rolling over is exciting because it is usually their first sense of independence. They can now move to get what they want! It is also the starting point for all of their other physical milestones.
To help your baby learn to roll over, use some of our tips.
- Offer lots of tummy time play to build their strength to lift their head and shoulder.
- Put them on their side to play and place toys out of their reach to encourage rolling.
- Allow your baby to play on their back and practice hip rotations.
- Help your baby cross their midline while playing. Offer toys or activities that encourage their arms to cross the middle of their body.
- Give your baby some assistance by gently rolling them yourself to get them used to the movement. Also, use a blanket to assist when they get closer to rolling on their own.
One day soon you will set your baby down on their playmat and look away briefly only to find that they have rolled off of it. This will be only the first taste of what is to come in the future regarding your baby’s developing movement!
