5 Tips For Teaching Your Baby To Roll Over From Back to Belly

Watching our little ones grow is both thrilling and stressful. While there is no high like seeing your sweet baby recognize your face for the first time or learn to play peek-a-boo, there is no low like worrying that your baby might not be developing on schedule.

Almost every time I speak to a parent about their baby I find that they have been worrying about one or two of the major milestones of the first year. So, rest assured, even if your baby hasn't rolled over and it is nearing the 10 month mark, while you should let your pediatrician know, your baby will be just fine in all but the rarest cases. However, there are a few small things you can do to help your little one as they are working on figuring out how to flip the world upside down and back.

1. Hip Swivel

This is a simple little exercise to help you start walking your nimble little wiggle worm through the motions of rolling over. Start with her laying on a blanket on a soft floor. Take ahold of each of her legs, and gently cross the right leg over the left. Keep bringing the top leg over and around, until her right hip lifts off the floor. Now hold her there or a count of five unless she seems uncomfortable or frustrated. Then gently bring her right leg back to it's natural position, and repeat the movement with her left leg. Repeat this, taking turns on each leg, about 6 or 7 times in a row to help encourage muscle memory. This gentle repetitive motion will help guide your baby through the mechanics of how to get her lower body to roll over. In just a couple of weeks you should see her start to swing her leg over and swivel her hips on her own as she gets ready to fully roll over.

2. Raise the Arm

Another step you can take to help your little finger muncher learn how to get from his back to his belly is to show him how to get that arm out of his way. If you've seen your baby roll up onto his side at all, you might have noticed that one of the things stopping him from just rolling the rest of the way is the arm he is resting on. So, the next time you see your sweet little monkey get almost up and over, just reach in and take a hold of his arm that is against the blanket, and guide it up near his ear, so it is completely out of his way. Always guide the arm gently, and let your baby pull it back if he is uncomfortable. Try to remember to do this as often as you can while playing with him on the floor. Before you know it he'll start figuring out how to get out of his own way.

3. Demonstrate

Yes, this means what you think it means. It means you should get down on the ground and roll over while your little sock kicker watches. It may sound silly, but there is more and more evidence turning up that babies start learning visually long before we think they do. Hold her up to watch as another baby rolls over sometimes as well. This is helpful, because it gives you an example of exactly how another baby gets themselves rolled over. Also, when you are demonstrating the technique to your baby, remember to think through each step from your little rug buddy's perspective. You might realize how hard it is to twist your legs over without something to push off from, or notice the huge barrier that your shoulder becomes. These little insights can help you understand your baby's struggle, and be supportive in the ways that are most effective for her.

4. Sing a Ditty

A little tune can turn a stressful training session into a fun workout for a grown up, and unsurprisingly, it can also work for your baby. Sing, or hum or whistle a peppy tune to your little giggle face as you help roll him back and forth slowly from back to front, and then front to back. I particularly like singing "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" because it comes with built in instructions about how to roll over! I have even wondered if teaching babies to roll over might have been the original purpose of the nursery rhyme! Whether you use this song, or one of your own, a little music goes a long way toward turning floor time fun, for both of you.

5. Payoff is Important

It is important not to discourage your cute little honey bubble by forgetting to give her a reward after she has been working hard on learning to roll over. Though your little one doesn't have a concept of "earning a reward", she will already have a highly developed sense of "needing a break". So take a few minutes to play with her before, during, and after you work on rolling over with her. It'll be a surprisingly nice pause for yourself as well. Teaching your baby to do anything can feel like trying to train water to dance, so take a lot of breaks to enjoy your little stinker and remind yourself that he's pretty amazing already.

It is extremely likely that eventually your sweet cuddle bear will learn to roll over, no matter if he does it spontaneously at 4 months, or seems to be just starting to figure it out by his first year. There is hardly ever a reason to worry about exactly when it will happen, and chances are good that if there is a reason to worry, your pediatrician will not only know what it is, but give you helpful and useful things you can do to help him with his own unique developmental needs. The most important thing is to always see the best in your baby, encourage, and support him, and always believe that he is capable of anything. Your baby will understand that long before he figures out how to get from his back to his belly. As always, comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome, and if you have found these tips to be helpful, please forward them to any new, or expecting parents you know. Happy parenting!

Also, please check out my current work over at YummyShapes.com where I blog about once a week these days.

5 tips for soothing a colicky baby.

Colic. The dreaded, the mythical, the bane of parental existence... colic. It's such a cute little word when you look at it, yet the meaning it carries is ugly indeed. Crying. Your baby crying and there seems to be nothing you can do to help. The definition of colic is basically a baby who cries at predictable times during the day for around three hours at a time. There is no known cause or cure. Helpful huh? Of course colic has existed since babies have, and mothers over the years have learned a few things to try that might help you and your little screamer through the rough patches. Also, my 5 tips for gas and reflux can also be tried to help remedy colic.

1. The Superman hold.

Hold your baby tummy down, feet pointing at you, with one hand under her belly button and one hand supporting her head. Stand with your legs spread apart and swing your baby through your legs backward and forward, supporting the majority of her weight with the hand on her belly button. You can continue to hold her this way while seated, suspending her between your knees, bouncing a bit. The reason i think that this sometimes works is partly because it helps expel gas, partly because it provides a bit of warmth from your hand that may soothe your baby's abdominal muscles if they are sore and partly because the motion of swinging or bouncing can help a baby focus on her internal equilibrium which takes the focus off of whatever is causing the colic.

2. Examine your diet.

One possible explanation for colic is that it is actually your baby expressing discomfort because of food allergies. If your baby is bottle fed there are many other types of formula you can try, your pediatrician will be able to recommend one that is right for you and your baby. However, if you are breastfeeding, there are a thousand things it could be. Many mothers try to eliminate suspicious foods from their diet one at a time, which can take forever, and is still not guaranteed to help. I recommend a bland your diet for 2 days, then adding foods back in over a couple weeks. Try oatmeal (no milk or sugar) and an apple for breakfast, a baked potato with olive oil (no dairy) and roasted turkey breast for lunch and brown rice, carrots and grilled chicken (no onions) for dinner. As you'll notice the things cut out of this meal plan are dairy, wheat, legumes and most fruits and veggies. The fruits and veggies that are most often the culprit seem to be things like broccoli, onions, beans, acidic fruits, If you are on this diet for a couple of days and see no changes in your babies temperament then chances are it is not something you are eating, and you can either switch out the bland foods for other bland foods to rule out the few things that you were eating, or just go back to your normal eating habits. If your baby suddenly calms though, try reintroducing a few foods a day until your baby begins to be colicky again. Then slowly scale back to pin point which food was the issue. In rare instances there can be more than one allergen causing your baby discomfort, and quite often the cause is not rooted in your diet at all, but eliminating your diet as a cause will save you a lot of guilt and worry.

3. Try sleep-in-motion.

I am not a big fan of using sleep in motion (swings, cars, strollers), because of potential sleep problems that can develop as a result of over using it. However, there are times when helping your baby get some sleep (no matter how) outweighs everything else. First try the baby swing, since that will be the most convenient, then the stroller, and only as a last resort try the car. Though the car can often be the most effective, it is also the most work and the hardest on the environment. If you have a bicycle, and a baby-safe trailer, it is also a good method to try depending on the weather. After your baby is asleep, if you can stop the motion and they stay asleep I highly recommend it. Their sleep will be deeper and more restorative with less outside stimulation to contend with.

4. Use a hair dryer.
The most strange secret weapon against colic is sound. Though no one is certain why, the sound of a hair dryer, vacuum, car engine or fan can get your colicky baby's attention and calm their stress like nothing else. Though I'm sure there is a rational explanation for why this so often works, right now it seems a little like magic. Because leaving electronic devices running for too long both wastes energy and can be a fire hazard using a prerecorded source for the noise is the best option. You can record it yourself or buy recordings here. Just remember that keeping the noise at a fairly high level also seems to help. I recommend starting with the sounds on lower, and slowly turning it up until your baby begins to react positively. Before investing time or money in this solution try the real sound so you can be sure it will work for your baby.

5. A vibrating back massager on the tummy.
When all else seems to be failing, a technique that has worked for me a few times is to get a vibrating back massage device, wrap it in a towel to mute the strength of the vibrations, and apply it gently to your baby's belly. Be careful not to keep the massage device in any one place for too long (over 2 minutes), and try to keep the entire massage under 10 minutes. If you sometimes go as long as 15 it should be okay, but shoot for short sessions. If your baby responds well and falls asleep, stop the massage device and put it away.

Though colic is a difficult thing to go through with your baby, even if all the tips, tricks and hints in the world do not help you can at least take comfort in knowing that it does not last forever. Most colic resolves by 4 months, and %90 of cases resolve by 9 months. I know that it is a small comfort but sometimes even a distant hope is better than none at all. Always remember to keep an eye on your own stress and frustration levels. If you begin to be overwhelmed, laying your baby down in a safe crib and taking a short break, even while they are crying, to calm your nerves can make a huge difference to your ability to cope well with the stress of the situation.

Try to work together with your spouse or partner or supportive friend to give each other support and comfort, assigning blame and picking at each other, though natural, will only add more stress to the situation. Keep your spirits up, lean on each other and try try again until that magical day when your little human cacophony stops crying for no reason and spends the majority of his time being cute. Happy parenting!