Mom Question #1: I have a 9 month old baby girl. She is not yet rolling over, although she can sometimes roll from her stomach to her back. She sits on her own quite well, and can wiggle herself around on the floor, so should I be concerned?
Dr. Milobsky: For the last 10-15 years, pediatricians have been strongly recommending that infants be put to sleep on their backs in order to decrease the incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Since the widespread implementation of this practice, we have indeed seen a significant decline in SIDS, but as a result we have also noticed that many children are rolling over and sitting later then they did previously. From the description you gave of your child, it seems that she has appropriate gross motor skills in that she sits well and can now move independently. You did not mention whether her fine motor skills or her speech and language skills were also normal, but if she is developing normally in all of these areas, I would not be concerned about her. If your pediatrician has expressed concerns, you should definitely follow up closely with frequent evaluations.
Mom Question #2: My husband and I are having an argument over sleep routines for our 4 week old. I say it’s too early for him to recognize any sort of real evening routine, but my husband says we should implement a routine to train the baby to get ready for sleep. Which one of us is correct?
Dr. Milobsky: You are absolutely right that babies do better with an evening routine to help them get ready for evening sleep. However, at only 4 weeks old, most babies are too immature to recognize an evening routine and parents usually are still simply responding to their baby on demand. Some popular books advise parents to impose a rigid sleep schedule on even very young infants. However, most developmental specialists disagree with this theory.
Mom Question #3: I'm worried about how much my 5 month old baby girl sleeps. She'll sleep for about 12 to 13 hours at night without waking. Then during the day, she'll take two naps, each from 2 to 3 hours long. Everything I have read says not to wake her, and that she'll sleep as much as she needs. Although her development seems to be right on track (she's even ahead of the game with some things), I'm worried that she's not learning enough in the short periods that she is awake. Should I start to wake her, or just let her sleep as much as she likes?
Dr. Milobsky: Don’t wake your child! According to most pediatric sleep experts, the average infant between 4-11 months sleeps 11-16.5 hours in a 24 hour period. By 4-6 months this is usually divided into one long stretch at night with two naps during the day. You should be very happy that your daughter jumped right into this pattern spontaneously. As far as your concern that she is not learning enough, many experts believe that children who are good sleepers (especially during the day) have longer attention spans, so she is probably learning more with her awake time than many children who aren’t as well rested.