Sleeping on front - would you?

[Threaders]

I don't post often, but am looking for opinions on WWYD

DD is 15 weeks old. She started teething about 2 weeks ago - up until this, she was a great sleeper, going from 7pm till 2ish, having a feed, then going to sleep again till 7ish the next morning.

Teething has completely obliterated this, she shuffles, stirs and groans for most of the night, and has been waking every hour or so.... both she, and us parents, are utterly shattered from it.

To get her back off, we have found that the only option is to have her sleep on our chest (on her front) as she drops off for a good 3 or 4 hours this way. However, this is not great as it means we don't get much sleep through discomfort and worrying about her falling off. I noticed the other night that just putting her on her front in her cot made her fall asleep almost straight away, but I was just checking to see and I didn't let her sleep like this.

Last night, at about 3am after yet another terrible night for her, I put her on her fron in her cot and she went off straight away, and slept right through till 7am.

I'm more than aware that this goes against everything we are told about putting babies to sleep on their backs only. DD is pretty advanced for her age, she can freely roll over from back to front, and sometimes (but not often) can go from front to back. So I'm just wondering - am I taking unneccessary risks here? Or do you think now that she has the ability to roll, it's safer to let her sleep like this if she is finding it impossible to settle any other way?

(sorry it's long, I just want to explain fully)

just bumping

Only you can decide what is right for you. The stats say it is better to sleep on their backs. But, if I was to do my time over again I would sleep one of mine on her front. It wasn't until she was able to do it herself that she slept for longer than 40 minutes.

I'm afraid I can't offer any advice Threaders. Obviously the advice from the pro's is to sleep babies on their backs, but when I was a child, all the professional advice was to sleep babies on their front! My child is now 10 months and has automatically slept on her front for a few months - it would actually be impossible for me to keep her on her back.
Hope someone else can help more x

Hiya, we were in exactly the same position as you, and bought a movement monitor which we've found invaluable. He can sleep on his tummy and we can hear that he's safe x

i agree with jerryg, if you are going to sleep baby on her front get an angle care monitor or similar, the worry about young a baby being on her front is that she could turn her face down into the matress, the monitor detects the heart beat/movement. if she is rolling anyway would it really be any different than you actually putting her in that position? can she turn her head to the side if you put her face down? if you give her lots of tummy time during the day she will soon master it and then you wont feel so worried? I hope you get some sleep soon xx

The experts say that there is a higher risk of cot death if babies sleep on their tummies, but even then cot death is a very rare occurrence and studies have shown that the babies who have died of it could have already had other health issues at hand which could have contributed to that.

Really you've got to weigh out the pros and cons of doing so. Yes by doing so you will be running a slightly higher risk of cot death, but if your baby doesn't settle to the point where it is really causing you a lot of distress... ... an unhappy mum equals an unhappy baby, isn't it? So do what's best for you.

Its worth checking out with your GP or Paed whether your baby has any health concerns which might have contributed to the refusal to settle on his back. And obviously once your baby is old enough to roll on their own, the risk of cot death is much lesser by then and I remember reading that its not worth stressing out over their sleeping positions by then.

To place things in context.....

the risk of SIDS lying supine is approx 0.3/1000
the risk of SIDS lying prone is approx 1.5/1000 ( 5 fold increase in risk)

the risk of dying in a road accident is approx 1/200 according to the dept of transport in 2008.

You have to make your mind up according to all the risks you take in life.

My dd3 is 5 mths and has slept on her front since she was 8 weeks old. ( although she managed to roll from her front to back as young as 5 weeks!)

I think the advice states that if babies can roll then it is no longer an issue. Both DSs sleep on their fronts. I endured 3 months of sleepless hell with DS1 before putting him on his front; DS2 went on is front at 2 weeks.

I did put both of them face down into a duvet to see what they did and both immediately turned their heads to the side; so I felt reassured before doing so that they could cope.

I don't advocate it and didn't plan to do it, but did allow dd to sleep on her side or tummy from v. early on. She could turn her head from birth and within a few weeks was bracing her feet on whatever was nearby (usually me or DH) to turn herself over. We coslept and I was always v. conscious of her breathing. If she'd been in a cot, I prob would have bought a monitor. She has always been a good sleeper.

Thank you for all your comments and opinions.

Just to update, as DD is quite strong and is able to lift and turn her head when on her tummy, as well as being able to roll, we decided to allow her to sleep on her tummy IF she wouldn't settle on her back. The current routine for the past 3 nights has been to put her on her back at 7, then at about 1-ish she becomes unsettled, so we try to settle her back to sleep but each time the only way she has settled is when we put her on her tummy. We've weighed up the pro's and con's, and are confident that she is ready to be allowed to sleep on her front for at least some of the night. So far, she's given us 12 hours per night (with a midway turn over!) and seems much happier during the day as well as she is obviously getting better quality sleep.

Again, thanks for your input.