Putting your baby to sleep on their tummy

[mrsv2]

Be honest with me......did anyone do this despite it being against all the advice you are given. DS ( 4 weeks old) just doesnt settle and today has slept for several hours on his tummy in his pram whilst i was keeping a close eye on him.

[HappyHippyChick]

Ds3 would only settle on his tummy so I did for him. The other three were fine on their back. Maybe you can get one of those movement monitors if you're worried, but we were fine (although I was forever waking up to check he was breathing!)

[HappyHippyChick]

Btw ds3 us now 2 and still sleeps on his tummy!

[Houseworkprocrastinator]

Yes. My eldest only started sleeping properly when she rolled over, which she did quite early. I spent a few days constantly turning her back because I was so worried then gave up.
Second wouldn't settle on her back either so I put her on her front.

[ButtonBoo]

We put DD to sleep on her tummy from 4mo. She had her first cold and it seemed to help her sleep better being on her front. I was obsessed with keeping an eye on her for the first few nights but she was holding her head up well and we used a monitor after that.

We swaddled before that which certainly helped with settling her at night and she slept on a sheepskin which helped stop her waking up when we put her down onto a cold bedsheet.

[missymoomoomee]

I only put mine to sleep on their tummies because they had the apnea moniters. I wouldn't have done it without one.

[AnitaBlake]

We did, as a last resort, as DD simply wouldn't sleep, and it worked great. She had reflux as it turned out, and I read up on all the different points that can contribute to SIDS before I tried it. She also slept in her own room very early too.

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

DS2 and DS3 both did - they simply would not settle any other way. I got a monitor (Tommee Tippee, I think) from Argos for about £55. I decided that they didn't have any other SIDS risks (no-one in the house smokes, for example) and that plus the monitor was enough for me to feel relaxed about it. My HVs have all been fine about it, too.

[Jen547]

I have been doing the same with my 6 week old. She wouldn't settle any other way and we figured she spends so much time sleeping face down on our chests that found so in her moses basket wasn't much different. My mum also wisely pointed our that when I was a baby the advice from midwives was AGAINST sleeping them on their backs and so I was always face down and hey, I survived! no one knows what causes SIDS, they have just identified some POTENTIAL risk factors. It's not set in stone like say, the link between smoking and lung cancer.

[chocolatetester1]

From about 1 week old, we had to put ds2 on his tummy to sleep, it was that or go bonkers. We have a video monitor sensitive enough to pick up his breathing. He's not exposed to any other SID risks. And we don't tell the HV cos although she's lovely, it'd only make her worry!

[HanSolo]

I thought sleeping on their tummy was the biggest risk factor?

[SarahJessicaFarter]

No there are lots of contributory factors. My dd slept on her tummy from 2 weeks. She could lift her head and peer over the edge of her bassinette from 5 weeks. But the fact is she just didn't sleep any other way. It was nerve wracking when I first put her down on her tum, ds slept on his back and has a flat head. But she did sleep in the same room for 5 months. Ds only 6 weeks.

[LDNmummy]

I did this with my DD and she still sleeps on her tummy at age 1.

However, she had amazing head control from the moment she was born which even doctors and nurses would comment on all the time. And most importantly, it has meant I haven't slept one night since I started putting her on her tummy without her being in, or right next to my bed so I can check on her. I have also not slept one night without checking on her consistently since then (I am exhausted!)

When she was very little I checked on her constantly and we co-sleep so I know how she is at all times.

My cousin's baby sadly passed away from accidental suffocation so I think it is important to keep a close eye.

I don't however think it is the worst thing you can do to allow your child to sleep on their tummy. You just have to be vigilant in keeping an eye.

[Seriouslysleepdeprived]

'I thought sleeping in their tummy was the biggest risk factor'

After the Back to Sleep campaign in the early 90's, SIDS rates fell from around 1200 to 300 per year.

They have remained pretty static since as no other factor has had such an impact. Therefore it being put to sleep on their back appears to be the most protective factor.

[ilovesprouts]

my gd whos 12 weeks old sleeps on her tummy ,she would never sleep much on her back .

[StuntNun]

Not quite the same but my DS2 slept on his side from his first night. I would put him down on his back and he would roll on to his left side. I thought he was going to get a wonky head from it but there was no stopping him!

[LeBFG]

Other things changed during the back to sleep campaign too Ssd. In particular the stuff put in matresses. The cases of SIDS were already declining before the campaign. Certainly the sleeping on front has helped save a lot of lives, I don't want to play this down, however, it isn't the whole story.

I had a 2kg prem DS where SIDS risks are much higher than for full-termers. He was a terrible sleeper and always preferred to sleep on the tum when in hospital (they have all the monitors of course). When he came home, I did put him on his tum in a very wide flat bottomed pram in the day and I checked him regularly. We frequently coslept in the first few months (another SIDS risk) and I would very occasionally put him on his tum facing me. We have no other risk factors btw.

I'm not advocating anyone follows what I did. I remember reading on a SIDS website the expert saying that, if you've tried everything, and your DC has gone to sleep on tum, then don't pull your hair out over it. The chances are extremely high they wake up again the next day. I was really surprised to read this and relaxed a bit. If you regularly practice backing sleeping the occasional frontal nap is probably not going to significantly increase SIDS risk IMO.

[scarletforya]

I'd recommend an Angelcare monitor, if the baby stops breathing an alarm goes off. They really give peace of mind. I wouldn't be without one!

[PebblePots]

Yes, my dd has slept on tum from about 5 wks

[mrsv2]

Thank you got all your replies.... Dh is adamant that we don't put him on his tummy so even though I feel it would be ok then we both have to be happy with the decision. So I guess I continue with an unsettled baby and co sleeping for a while longer....:-(

[AnitaBlake]

We both felt sick to our stomachs the first night we did it. DD has had brilliant headcontrol from the second she was born, and had reflux, which meant that everytime we laid her on her back, the acid came up from her tummy. I read as much as I could before we did it, and decided that, because of other influencing factors associated with SIDS, putting her to bed on her back, while a massive factor was a risk that we personally needed to take.

We hadn't actually had anything longer than an hours sleep from her being born at this stage and we we were more than six weeks in. I admitted it to the HV, who was very worried about me, and she agreed it was worth trying.

My advice would be to look at the influence of each SIDS risk factor for your circumstances and decide if you think it is worth trying. They are guidelines, not laws, and as with all public health advice, what is applicable to the vast majority, and therefore, communicated as such, is always dependant on individual circumstances too, and must be considered as such.

[PoisonMountain]

Yes, but where I am, they advise you to! (During the day, when you can keep an eye on them, not at night) I never did because they both slept happily on their backs, but if dd turns herself and falls asleep, I leave her.

I was under the impression (when looking into SIDS precautions for DS) that the danger of babies falling asleep on their fronts is if the mattress is too soft. Also that putting babies on their backs significantly dropped the risk of SIDS, and this was thought to be because they no longer breathed in the chemicals that used to be used in the mattress manufacturing process.The implication being that now these chemicals are not allowed any more, it's less of a risk.

[stinkymice]

Yes I did this with all 3 of mine. DS1 only when he started to roll on his own, which was a relief as he had been a terrible sleeper up to that point. DS2 and DS3 I put on their tummies to sleep in my bed! After such sleep deprivation with first born, I was happy to make that decision.

[bonzo77]

DS slept on his tummy from about 8 weeks. Both over night and in his pram. We had no other SIDS risks. If he had slept better on his back I would have put him down on his back.

There are a lot of factors that interact. Obviously one tries to reduce the risks as far as possible. One of the biggest risk factors sadly is poverty, something that is hard to do much about immediately.

[AnyaKnowIt]

DD has slept on her side since she was a few days old. She also had reflux and apnea and was told to put her on her side.

[seeker]

This is so scary- there have been several threads like this recently. People have forgotten the awfulness of cot death. Please don't put your babies on their fronts to sleep- it is the single biggest contributory factor. And the back to sleep campaign reduced cot death by 75%.