To let my baby have supervised naps on her tummy?

[babypanther]

I just want to preface by saying that I follow safe sleep advice and always put my baby down to sleep on her back. However she seems much more settled and sleeps more soundly when I’m holding her against my chest and seems a lot more comfortable on her tummy (she also has quite bad wind). Would it be OK for her to nap on her tummy if I’m supervising her? Eg. just putting her down when I need to quick chores such as washing her bottles etc, not for prolonged periods of time? I would never leave her unsupervised and she would always be within my sight.

I remember reading about a celebrity sleep consultant, well sleep consultant popular with celebs who recommend front sleeping.

One of my kids was only happy on their front. I tried to stop it at first but soon gave up.

Some children prefer to sleep on their tummy.

Sometimes my DC would crash out on their tummies on the floor when they were 7, 8, 9 months and I'd just leave them to nap where they were (although I'd generally be in the same room).

Yes. One of my babies always rolled into her tummy to sleep she was much more comfy that way. If she has the strength to get on her tummy herself I would say she's fine to sleep that way.

I personally wouldn't. The advice for babies to sleep on their back has led to a significant drop in baby deaths. Even supervised, what would you actually do if the baby stopped breathing and what difference might 30 seconds make in that case? How long would an ambulance take and what difference would that make?

It's not an issue as soon as they can roll, it's probably 4 months away max. I would let the baby sleep on you (while you're awake), if they won't sleep on their back alone, and accept your house is probably going to be in a total state while you have a newborn. It will get steadily better over time.

I also strongly advise getting a good sling which works for you. Babies tend to sleep well in them and it frees up your arms.

Oh yes, on reading everyone else's comments if the baby can roll onto their front on their own that is fine (as long as they can roll back). My baby started rolling onto his front from 4 months and so slept on his front from that point (he could roll back too and was in a sleeping bag).

I was assuming this is a very small non-rolling baby.

Yeah this.

Exactly this.

That would depend how closely she is supervising. I used to sit next to my babies readinga book, looking at my phone etc and literally listening to them breathe. More or less the same as if they are asleep on your chest.

How old is your baby OP?

Both my son's when babies wouldn't sleep any other way from about 2 months old, I tried to keep them on their backs but soon I just gave up,I was always with them when sleeping. They are 5 & 2 now & still sleep the majority of time on their stomachs

Sorry, but this is silly. sleeping on their stomachs doesnt' make them all of a sudden stop breathing and then dying. It's to do with the risk of rebreathing exhaled breath or obstructions. OP, if supervising closely, can see/ hear if that is happening. Lots of people let their babies nap on their chests (awake parent), but then can monitor them and their breathing really closely.

She's not properly supervised if you're doing quick chores.
If she can roll from front to back then back to front then fair enough, otherwise I wouldn't unless you are sat right next to her the whole time.

In my era, sleeping on their tummies was recommended...

Thank you for your replies everyone. DD is 5 weeks old so she can’t roll by herself, so I appreciate it’s probably not a good idea to leave her since she couldn’t roll onto her back if she needed to. Once she is able to roll though I’m assuming it’s ok for her to be on her tummy, does this mean she can be put down on her tummy or that she would just have to roll herself into that position if she finds it more comfy?

I will invest in a sling as I don’t have one yet and I think this will be much better for when I need to get things done round the house.

I agree with this... it takes seconds for a baby to stop breathing and so even if you weren't looking for a couple of minutes she could still technically suffocate without you realising.You could get a breathing monitor sensor mat which would hopefully make you aware if they did stop breathing.But prevention is better than cure so even with that it's still best to always put them on their back to sleep, or have them sleep on you.

Cooldarkroom
I agree, we always put our babies to sleep on their tummies. Also, do people never leave their babies to sleep while they are doing housework etc. We used to put them to outside to sleep in the garden, or in their bedroom. We never hovered over sleeping babies or sat next to them. We obviously checked on them, but I don't know how anyone gets anything done nowadays.

see if you have a sling library near you - they're brilliant for finding one that works well for you before you buy, they're expensive and all quite different.
also, don't get too excited, it's really hard to do anything that involves any bending with a sling on, eg hanging laundry etc was hard to do without waking mine, all I could get away with was standing at the kitchen worktop with my laptop out (but I did all our online christmas shopping that year and played some excellent games!)

Just because a lot of babies survived despite being put down on their tummies doesn't mean it is fine. Cars didn't used to have seatbelts and a lot of kids survived that too, it doesn't mean it's something that should be copied now.

Contact nap on you where you can feel her breathing and be sure airway is clear - yes
nap on tummy in any other circumstances- hard no.

I understand people saying “mine did and they were fine” when I was a baby the advice was tummy sleep.
parents do their best with the available guidance.

However - global population level studies were then conducted to understand what causal factors were at play in cot death, and sleeping on tummies was found to be directly linked to higher population rates of cot death.

this sparked the back to sleep campaign

since the introduction of the safe sleep guidelines (which is of course more than just sleeping in back but this is a major part) the incident of cot death has decreased markedly.

these recommendations are not made in the basis of anecdotes but statistics - don’t follow an anecdote to be a statistic.

i hope someone will be along soon with the links tk studies etc.

The advice now is that they sleep and nap in the same room as an adult until 6 months of age. I've fully embraced this and use naps as my chill time, although she's 6months next week. We do washing up and other chores when she's awake and she watches me.
DS is 18 and I can't remember if he napped in a separate room but he definitely slept overnight with us until 6 months.

This article about the “Back to Sleep” campaign led by Anne Diamond, the TV presenter, is good reading on the subject. I can still see the image of her and her husband carrying their son’s tiny coffin, and the grief etched on their faces.

My baby would only sleep on her tummy - absolutely never on her back. She slept like that from a month or so. It’s fine if supervised and all other rules applied.

At 5 weeks, no chance. Supervision makes no difference. The carbon dioxide they exhale builds up around their mouth/nose if they’re face down. So, the air they breathe in is high in carbon dioxide and low in oxygen. You can’t see or notice that happening. As that happens, their oxygen levels drop and the carbon dioxide levels rise. By the time they stop breathing and you notice, it’s almost always too late to undo the damage.

When she’s a bit older and can position herself, no problem.

My DD is 7mo and we were told it’s been increased from 6 months to 8 months now. It was 6 months when we had DS though (he’s three now).

I thought it was meant to be ok once they can roll? Is that outdated now as mine are 14 and 9?

Mine really wouldn’t sleep on their backs. They just wouldn’t.

I understand the reasons why we’re told not to let them do this but I’m also not sure what you’re meant to do if they won’t sleep on their backs.