When Does A Baby Roll Over?

You have this new squishy, cute, and wiggly baby.  Your baby is starting to get better at holding up their head and is enjoying floor time.  You’ve been waiting to see your baby make his/her first big move.  Rolling often is one of the first “big” gross motor milestones that occurs in infants.  Rolling is also really cool because it is one of the first times your baby’s two sides of the brain start talking to each other.  Your baby is doing something called crossing the midline.  When should you be expecting your baby to roll and what can you do to encourage rolling?

 

When Does A Baby Roll Over and Tips To Promote This Gross Motor Skill

When Does A Baby Roll Over?

It’s exciting to see your baby roll over.  A question I often get asked is when will my baby roll? Generally,  your baby will begin to roll over in a range between 2-5 months of age.  Your baby will likely roll from their stomach to their back first.  After your baby has achieved rolling from their stomach to their back they will learn to roll from their back to their stomach.  This usually occurs in the 5-7 month range.  Shortly there after you may find yourself with a baby rolling all over!

What Can I Do?

Make sure that your baby has plenty of opportunities to practice rolling.  Let’s begin with  tummy time. Your baby needs to be able to tolerate being on their tummy to work on moving from their tummy to there back.  (Want To Know More About Tummy Time? – check out my Tummy Time Resource Guide)

Tummy Time For Rolling

Your baby needs opportunities to play in all different positions.  Tummy time is so important and often stressed as babies don’t spend as much time on their tummies, but it’s also important that babies get ample time to play on their sides and backs as well.  Babies need to know all 360 degrees of their bodies!  You can even hold your baby in all three positions! 

Limiting baby equipment.  Making sure that your baby isn’t shuffled from one piece of equipment to another throughout the day is important so that your baby gets opportunities to work on their rolling skills.

Videos

If you are looking for ideas on how to play to encourage rolling I’ve found some videos that do a great job of showing this.  It’s much easier to see it in a video than read it in words.  Here are a few of my favorites!

Kids On The Move – Tummy to Back

Kids On The Move – Back To Tummy

Starfish Therapies – Rolling From Back To Stomach

My Experience

Both of my babies rolled from their tummies to  their back at 3 months.  My oldest moved from his back to his tummy around 5.5 months.  My baby hasn’t achieved this milestone yet (he’s 4 months).  I didn’t do anything special besides allow for my babies to have ample floor time in all positions.  In turn, this meant that my babies didn’t spend a lot of time in baby equipment.  By allowing them to explore and get an understanding of their body, both babies learned to roll without any extra encouragement in my case.

Favorite Baby Equipment

Click on each photo to see product details.  Affiliate links. 
                                 

2 thoughts on “When Does A Baby Roll Over?”

  1. My baby rolled from his back to his tummy first. He gets stuck on his tummy and can’t figure out how to flip over to his back. Any tips to help the fact? Aside from regular ample floor time.

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