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.

Just to engage in the debate rather than trying to persuade anyone to put babies on their fronts: Most babies that die of SIDS have more than one risk factor e.g. sleep on tum AND mum smokes.

In the MN webchat with George Haycock, she replies to a mother whose baby died of SIDS. It is important to recognise that risk factors are not causes in a simple sense. Whatever the epidemiological evidence may show about population risks, it is never possible to identify a definite cause for an individual case of SIDS. What I take from this is that people in general should be looking to put babies on backs as well as avoiding the other risks. Most babies are happy doing this. If you do this most/all the time then great. If occasionally you put them on tum, well then in all likelihood, they will be fine. How much are you increasing the SIDS risk if you do this occasionally?

Oh ffs its thanks to statements like Most babies that die of SIDS have more than one risk factor e.g. sleep on tum AND mum smokes that I was blamed for my sons death by stupid ignorant people who didn't know better. My son had NO risk factors, not one (other than being an 11 week old boy), I did EVERYTHING right and still he died so please stop generalising like that.

Read a bit further missymoomoomee. I completely agree with Haycock's comment in italics. The "most babies" bit is just what the statistics show. I'm in no way trying to lay 'blame' at parents' doors etc. Quite the opposite really. In very sorry for you loss btw.

Just to add my 2p here; I wanted to address a couple of points that have been made: Firstly, some evidence suggests that far from being less risky, it is babies who are unaccustomed to being slept on their tummies that are at greatest risk. I.e tummy sleeping is more risky than back sleeping, but for babies who are not used to sleeping on their front the risk is even greater.

Secondly, risk factors are not causes of SIDS; however they (or at least the well known ones such as smoking, tummy sleeping etc) are factors which, if they had not been present, might have resulted in some babies not dying. SIDS by definition is the death of an infant for which no cause could be found. That does not mean that risk factors do not play a role. If you want to know more about the role of risk factors, check out the 'triple risk model' of SIDS.

Finally it is true that poverty is strongly associated with SIDS - this may be in large part because impoverished populations are more likely to smoke, drink, formula feed, have babies of lower birth weight at a younger age etc. Richer groups are less likely to do all those things, and are also more able to access health care, have higher educational level etc. All these factors put poorer groups at a greater risk of SIDS because of their greater exposure to those risk factors.

Yes, I did. I could either have 20 minutes sleep at a stretch max with him on his back, or 4 hrs with him on my tummy

I weighed it up, we were a low risk of SIDS in every other respect

Our dd sleeps on her front and is happier that way because she has silent reflux -on her back, she was waking every 30 mins and taking 30/40 mins to get back down so on a whim - after 12 incredibly long and exhausting weeks - we tried her on her tummy and she wakes 4/5 times a night now instead so must be more comfy for her. She's nearly 7 months though and we have a tommee tippee sensor mat monitor. I'm not sure I'd have been keen to start her much earlier than we did at 6 months but with the mat, there's some reassurance there. You have to do what you feel is best. I think guidance from hv is all well and good but you're living with your dc and know what suits/doesn't. My parents listened to medical advice when I was born 33 years ago and it was to always put baby to sleep on front! Xx