To put 4 and a half month old to sleep alone?

[Giddyupballoon]

I know the official advice is to keep them with you until they are 6 months. But DD does sleep with me but she goes to sleep at 7. Until recently we had her in the lounge with us but we kept her up talking and with the TV. So she’s in the bedside cot upstairs. It’s OK right … <goes to check again>

What about when baby is sleeping when out for a walk or in the car? They can hardly hear your heartbeat there?

In other countries they put babies out in the cold to sleep.

If your baby fell asleep in the pram do you really sit in the hallway til they wake up?

Like all things it's a balance of risk. If everyone is knackered your risk of other accidents increases. It's like rear facing car seats. Fine if your child is happy in one but if they scream and are sick the dangers in other ways stack up.

How child rearing fashions change. My babies who are in their twenties went into cots in their own room their first day home. It wasn't seen as at all unusual and they were sleeping through at six weeks for one and eight weeks for the other. I can't imagine having a four month old in our room.

Many things in child rearing could be described as fashions, but not safe sleeping - unless you also think car seats and polio vaccinations are fashions

I can't see why sleeping in another room in their own cot was not safe. Unless you plan to stay awake all night you can't be watching them 24 hours a day. Polio vaccines were introduced in the 1950s so hardly a passing fad and we also had car seats 20 years ago too.

I do remember though when the best medical advice was to sleep babies on their front because I remember my mother babysitting and putting the baby on his front and I thought it was so odd I asked about it. She told me it was the new way. It looked extremely odd to 10 year old me. I now understand it was some misguided medical idea about not choking on any vomit and it is considered an extremely dangerous thing to do. It was seen as completely wrong when I had children and it wasn't even an idea when I was a baby.

I did put DD up into her cot early evening but she had a heart monitor mat which helped to give me some reassurance. I think it’s fine for early evening but well yes guidance does state not to sleep alone