Rolling over in infants: age, ethnicity, and cultural differences

Abstract

A preliminary cross‐sectional study of 72 Hong Kong Chinese infants suggested that these infants learn to roll from supine‐to‐prone before rolling from prone‐to‐supine i.e. the opposite to teaching in most western texts. Three‐hundred and sixty mothers were recruited postpartum and asked to record, on a chart, information related to the developmental milestone of rolling over for their infants (49% male) during the next 9 months. Telephone reminders were given at 4 and 8 months and, by the end of the study, information had been obtained from 240 mothers (67% of original sample, 51% male infants). Mean ages of rolling over were 5.1 months (SD1.5) for supine‐to‐prone and 5.7 months (SD1.3) for prone‐to‐supine. Age of rolling over from supine‐to‐prone was not influenced by usual sleep position, infant's sex, mother's intention to breastfeed infant, number of siblings, marital status, main daytime caregiver, or feeding method over 9 months. Hong Kong Chinese infants roll from supine‐to‐prone before they roll from prone‐to‐supine.