Older baby falling asleep in buggy and 'flopping forward'

[CoffeeMum]

My 18 month year old baby sometimes falls asleep when sitting in the mclaren buggy, very occasionally, and for twenty minutes max. However, she does tend to flop her head forward when this happens as she's in a buggy, not a pram.

I have lost count of the number of people who come to me and express everything from slight concern to horror that baby is asleep in an uncomfy looking position.

Obviously, i'm not thrilled about DD doing this, but i need to stick with the mclaren really because I also have a toddler, so i need the buggy board, and to stick a scooter in the buggy too. I'm also a regular on the bus, and you can only imagine how little i want to take the phil & teds on the bus

Firstly, is it bad for babies to have the occasional nap in a less than ideal position? Secondly, is there even anything i can do about it? Thirdly, what can i say to all these people who are making comments? It's getting on my nerves a bit now

Thank you!

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

1. it's fine. she might occasionally get a stiff neck, but no harm done
   
2. can you recline the buggy a notch or two when she nods off? we used to do this with dd1's maclaren
   
3. thanks, smile, ignore, carry on . strangers are full of helpful advice about everything.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Can't you just recline the pushchair?

[CoffeeMum]

Thanks both. No, pushchair doesn't recline - is a very basic one, but was doing the job nicely - apart from this issue!

[notcitrus]

Trust me, even with a reclining buggy, attempting to recline it leads to a woken baby and screams that the buggy is now 'wrong'. Ds does this all the time, and just stirs frequently to flop down differently.
Smiling and confirming that the baby is quite capable of waking up if uncomforatble is a great skill. :)

[CoffeeMum]

Thanks notcitrus, it's just hard to defend yourself when you're not sure if you are, in fact, harming your baby! But yes, presumably she would just wake up if she was in pain would she. I'd just heard tales about how bad it was for babies to sleep for any length of time in car seats, for example, so i assumed it was even worse for them to be flopping around in the buggy.

I'm totally happy to do the 'smile and ignore' when i'm told my baby has lost her sock, taken her shoe off etc, but i wasn't sure about this one.

Thanks for the reply!

[Firawla]

both of mine did this, i sometimes try tipping the buggy back a bit to get their head back to a normal position but they tend to just put it back again how it was within a couple of min. with ds1 it was a reclining buggy but if i reclined it to put him a bit flatter he would wake up and scream, and only go back to sleep once it was back upright and able to put his head in that position again, so what can u do

[CoffeeMum]

That's the thing Firawla, i try the tipping the buggy thing, the moving her head thing - none of it works! It's not like i'm actually trying to get my child to be as uncomfortable as possible. Anyway, nod and smile, nod and smile

[Kalypso]

I have the Trunki head hugger for my nearly 17 month old DS:
Here it is
I often don't 'do it up' (i.e. put the magnets together at the front) but it's usually enough to stop his head flopping forward. He doesn't wake up when I put him into it, although he used to hate me readjusting his head position before I bought it. So I'm presuming it must be pretty comfortable! I just hang it off the buggy handle when not in use.