When can my baby nap alone?

[KatyClaire]

My son is 8 weeks old and at the moment we are obviously always with him when he sleeps. At what age did you start leaving your babies alone to nap with a monitor?

6 months as per the SIDS guidelines.

6 months. (But we waited until 8)

6 months, we moved DS to a room on hi own then too

6 months here too. I have a terrible sleeper though so I happily lay on the bed and read/snoozed. Enjoy it whilst you have an excuse to!

My baby is a similar age and I had the same question.

Lots of people we know have done daytime naps with a monitor in a different room, either now or a later but before 6 months.

However, not sure I feel comfortable with that given SID risk.

6/7 months. It was when I was sure she could roll back if she needed to.

Don't know what "alone" means but my son slept in the pram outside since birth and I needed to do things, so when asleep (fed and dry and all) and checked, I parked it and went about (pram in sight but I was not the eagle eye above his pram). When he woke I bounced him back and on I went. Passers-by also did this for me when they noticed he was stirring or put the dummy in and what not.

If you have a house or flat with more rooms, you can use the electric thing that alerts you when they stir/wake up/have a problem).

6 months. As per guidelines.

Never. Mine always slept on me or next to me on the sofa.

6 months here in his own cot in his own room.
But he was sometimes alone earlier then that. From a few weeks I would put him down in the moses basket in the living room ( asleep) and would pop into the kitchen and make lunch or do load the dishwasher or pop upstairs to get a load if laundry so would be in and out at times.

From about 4 months in his cot in his room. He did sometimes nap ‘alone’ in his pram in the hallway prior to that - born in May and it was by far and away the coolest room in the house - but I would be pottering about doing chores.

Mine is 6 months and will only nap on me so it's never happened for us really!

I can’t really remember, but probably between 4-6 months (obviously 6 months is safer).
Before then they’d be in the pram or a chair downstairs, or in a sling.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say we started leaving our LO alone for day naps at about 4 months. We used a snuza hero breathing monitor and video monitor to watch her, and although it's not the same as being next to her, they are definitely reassuring to have.

I had every intention of following every guideline to the letter before I gave birth but at about 3 months I found it really really hard to get DD to sleep anywhere other than in her cot, in the quiet and dark. For my own sanity I couldn't sit in a dark room listening to white noise for half my day.

Ideally you should be with baby for all naps until they are 6 months and that should definitely be the aim. However sometimes you have to weigh up the benefits and risks if baby is not playing ball or if your MH is suffering.

From about 3 months, my daughter got really sensitive to light and needed the curtains closed. She was also sleeping through the night by then so would go to bed at 7 or 8 with the monitor on and us checking in. We followed all thr other SIDS guidelines and her crib is in our bedroom so she sleeps with us but we found that worked. My anxiety was high initially and we regularly checked in on her but works for us.

@zookeeper19 passers by replaces your childs dummy?

@Skybooks sorry should have been more specific, this was not in publicly accessible place, it was a yard, so we all know each other. But yes, if someone was passing by, and the baby was fussy for the dummy they'd stick it back in, bounce the pram and so on.

Hope it makes more sense now :)

[quote ZooKeeper19]@Skybooks sorry should have been more specific, this was not in publicly accessible place, it was a yard, so we all know each other. But yes, if someone was passing by, and the baby was fussy for the dummy they'd stick it back in, bounce the pram and so on.

Hope it makes more sense now :)[/quote]

@ZooKeeper19 - was this a long time ago?

@MyGazeboisLeaking no, 2019/early 2020 (maybe should I say yes, 2019 when there was no covid). So 2019 - not sure how to quantify the time period. He was born October, so between that and the 1st lockdown.

Thanks everyone!

What I’m hoping is that I could set my baby down to sleep in his pram and pop in and out of the room while getting some jobs done - so he wouldn’t be on his own, exactly, but wouldn’t have me watching him every second either. I think he’s still too young for that, so I’ll give it another couple of months and then see if I feel comfortable doing so.

I think baby in pram and you around would be fine, I just wouldn't leave him alone on another floor if he's under 4 months.

I moved a crib I had downstairs up to my room when she was 4 months as she grew out of the moses basket but her sister had the cot until we got bunkbeds to swap everyone about but I had a baby monitor on every time she was sleeping..