Parents issued urgent advice on young babies sleeping on their front

Parents issued urgent advice on young babies sleeping on their front A health visitor has released information on what parents should do if they notice their infant has rolled onto their tummy during their sleep during the night A health visitor has issued a warning to all parents following new advice on young babies sleeping on their front. Following the Back to Sleep movement in the 1990s, new parents have been urged to place babies to sleep on their back, which cut Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) rates in half. The advice, which was championed by The Lullaby Trust, along with medical researchers and TV presenter Anne Diamond, is still used today, with health visitors checking sleep spaces and reminding parents over multiple visits to follow the guidance. However, it's not exactly clear what parents should do if their young child rolls over in their sleep, which can be common in babies that are learning to roll. Ruth Watts, a qualified and practicing health visitor in England, has advised parents exactly what to do in this situation in a recent TikTok video. What to do when your baby rolls onto their stomach Ruth said: "You've woken up and your baby is sleeping on their front, what should you do? Now I know for the past however many months you have been told since birth put your baby on their back, and that still is the advice. "However, once they can start rolling both ways.... and that is where the catch is, once they can roll from their back to their front and their front to their back, they can sleep on their front. Still put them down on their back, allow them to move themselves onto their front, but I know now you're going to ask me 'what do I do if they can't roll from their front to their back?' "Now the Lullaby Trust does recommend that you still, if you've woken and they're on their front and you know they cannot roll onto their back, that you do put them onto their back again. "You could maybe pick them up, feed, put them back down again if you know that it's going to wake them anyway, but it is recommended if they cannot roll from their front to their back to put them back down on their back." How to help your baby practice rolling safely Ruth did advise parents on how they could help their babies get more comfortable rolling so they didn't have to intervene during the night. "Now what you can do then is lots and lots and lots of floor time throughout the day, lots of opportunity to practise trying to roll from their front to their back, their back to their front again, putting things ever so slightly out of the reach, you know really trying to encourage them, supporting them with rolling because that's where once they can roll both ways you can leave them. "The same does apply for babies who are rolling onto their side. If they can roll both ways you can leave them on their side, if they cannot roll from their front to their back again we need to be laying them back down on their back and I know that can be disruptive and that can be frustrating but that really is going to be helping with safer sleep."