Nursery won't put LO to sleep on tummy (6.5mo)

[ryates71]

I'm busy planning my return to work in January and looking at nurserys.  One of the nursery's told me that they aren't allowed to put LO to sleep on his tummy - even though he has been a tummy sleeper since birth.  I AM MAJORLY WORRIED!!  I had never heard this so has anybody else been told this?  When he was born he would just cry when put on his back so we put him on his side, and as soon as he learnt how he would rock himself on to his tummy.  He has NEVER slept on his back.  I tried today to leave him on his back and see if he eventually rolled over but after 25 mins of crying (not all out crying, just general whimpering) I eventually went in and rolled him on to his front.  I am SOOO worried. How can I get him to settle himself?  He can roll over fine but will not roll from front to back to go to sleep.  At the moment there is far too much intervention from me going on but I just don't know how to get him to settle himself to sleep without my help.  At bed time he will settle himself once I put him on his front just not at nap time.  His nights have recently got loads better with one resettle, the occasional early start etc.

Sorry - this is really rambling but I'm just a bit of a mess today.  Basically my question is how do I teach him to settle himself to sleep without my help.  This is what happens at the moment:

Go upstairs and check nappy.
Put him in his gro bag.
Close the curtain / put his bedside lamp on.
Sometimes read a book (depending how restless he is).
Dim the light.
Put him on his front and pat his back.
... at this point I would love to be able to leave him to it (and often do at bedtime) but usually ....
He rolls on to his back and starts grumbling.
I either roll him back over or (if he's resisting) pick him up until he stops squirming - usually less than 30s.
Put him down on his front and pat his back.
Pick him up again if necessary and repeat cycle until he stays settled.

It's sort of PU/PD but I don't wait until he's all out crying to do it.  Also if it doesn't work after a few times I start the pacing up and down.  Basically I find PU/PD too hard on my back to do it too many times.

Also, once I've done this, I then don't know what to do to resettle him at the 30/45 mins mark (he almost always wakes).

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Rachel

[skatty]

I think your best bet is encouraging him to learn to roll onto his tummy himself, he will probably be doing it by then anyway but the way I did this was to roll my dd over and over on my bed, she loved it and became and expert roller  I understand your concern as dd could never settle on her back either so has always been a tummy sleeper.

[Tweakster]

Hi there, in another 2 or so months he will be sleeping every which way...they really move all over the place once they get mobile.  Once Finn broke out of the swaddle at 3 months we tummy slept him, he did longer stretches that way and it helped with his reflux.  Then he learned to roll from tum to back and we had to let him work out sleeping on his back again...he started to roll sideways then and slept a bit on his side.  Now he's on back, tummy, side you name it.

It is likely that by the time he is more mobile he'll choose his own preferred way of sleeping and it won't matter how they put him to start with :-)

I think just teaching him to settle himself period, no matter which way he is sleeping, will bode well for his sleeping at the nursery.

[ryates71]

Hi skatty, Hi Wendy,

Thanks for the encouragement. I've been trying this week to NOT pick him up and that seems to be working well.  I pat him on his back, then if he rolls on to his back I just lay may hand next to him until he rolls back on this front which he probably does about 50% of the time.  I've also spoken to another couple of nurseries who are more relaxed about the tummy sleeping (so long as I sign something to say I am ok with it).

Cheers,
Rachel

[skatty]

I think he will be rolling like a pro by then