tummy sleeping for 3mo what's the real risk??

[Bigglewinkle]

For ages DD was a really poor daytime sleeper (45minutes max and really grumpy amd tired for it) and nightimes, she'd grunt wriggle and cry lots esp between 2am and 6am.

I tried putting her on her tummy for lunchtime nap and now she does at least 2 hours most days. And I've started to put her on her tummy at night and it seems to help.
She seems much happier with it. Soo much smilier!

I've just seen a health visitor who was very snotty about this, and said 'ooh I wouldn't do that, it's far too risky' but didn't elaborate on what the actual risk is.

What are MNers thoughts??

Can she roll? If she can roll front to back then the risk of front sleeping has passed. The problem is that nobody knows why back sleeping is safer, it just is. Cot death reduced by 75% after the "back to sleep" campaign.

No she can't roll yet although she tries really hard to when on the playing mat - arching her back to see over her shoulder...DS1 is a tummy sleeper - as soon as he ws able he flipped onto his front to sleep.

No she can't roll yet although she tries really hard to when on the playing mat - arching her back to see over her shoulder...DS1 is a tummy sleeper - as soon as he ws able he flipped onto his front to sleep.

Higher risk of cot death, though I don't know figures.

Just looked up info on this. 1 in 2000 babies die of cot death, risks are reduced by my age (I'm over 20!), breastfeeding, not smoking, her being a girl, not being too hot and in a sleeping bag.
I increase the risk by putting her on her tummy, and not having her in my room. No where does it give the relative risks of each of these factors, and also many of the studies are small and aren't conclusive. In fact there's evidence that sleeping babies on their backs slows down their development, gives them neck problems and flat heads (which carries its own health risk)
So what's a mum to do??? I know! Put her on her tummy and get some kip myself...
Zzzz

Is there not some some figures on how much the CotDeath rate dropped afetr the Back To Sleep campaign in the 80s? Was it the 80s????

hi biggle, I have a 10 week old tummy sleeper. Been doing it since about 4/5 weeks. He was 10 days overdue and is a big boy...also been able to easily lift head from side to side when we put him on front.

I have done lots of reading up and from what I can gather, it's to do with them falling so fast asleep that they can forget to breathe. And also about them crushing their diaphragms (sp) or something? I ahve also read that the 75% figure is slightly misleading, as many of the deaths have been attributed to other causes. So although there is a definite reduction (not trying to say that there isn't a link), it's not quite as huge as we're lead to believe. But as Bertie says, there isn't anything conclusive.

I had a good chat with my NCT bf counsellor who reasured me. Spoke about many of the other contributing factors - e.g. more common in mum's under 20, smokers, ff fed. None of which I fall in to.

However, it's a decision that you've got to make. I let my DS sleep on his tummy knowing that there is an increased risk of cot death. I check him more, he's going to stay in our room until he's able to roll and DH and I are both happy with him sleeping. But I am still always slightly worried. But I balance that up against all of the other 'things' you have to worry about as a new mum. And the fact I have a happy, thriving baby who seems to be doing well. And able to settle himself to sleep most of the time.

Thanks LittleMilla - I do have some friends who've let their babies sleep on their tummies, but we've not found exact risk factors for it, and the internet is useful but I haven't found the statistics. Its nice to know I've not missed a trick finding out the risk