Sleeping on tummy !!!

[anna112]

My nearly 9 month old has suddenly started sleeping on his tummy. It started that he just slept on his side, and then started rolling onto his tummy. I'm really worried that it's not good for him and worried about his safety because he can only roll back onto his back occassionally. We used to go in and turn him back round onto his back, but most people kept telling us he would be fine and it could make him a light sleeper if we kept going in all the time. We were also told that if he wanted to turn back round and couldn't he would let us know. Really don't know what to do for the best and if the advice we have been given is ok. Any suggestions ??

Our DS did the same and slept soundly and perfectly safely. On the rare occassion he was sick his head was to the side and I actually felt he was safer being on his front. He's obviously comfy and how would you like someone coming in and disturbing you once you'd got comfy

Hi Anna,

DS decided at 5 months (!) that we wanted to sleep in his tummy. After spending 2 night awake turning him every 15 min back to his back I gave up! he is fne thankfully!
If you really want to prevent him from turning, you can get some things that make rolling very hard. We had some rolls taht fit tightly on the baby sides and prevent them from turning (i'll try to find a link). But I would not be too concerned at 9 months.

HTH

My dd has slept on her tummy since she could roll over at about 5 months. I wouldn't worry about it, I think it's only a risk of suffocation if they are really little and have no strength in their neck muscles to turn their heads.

I was confused by the recent change in "rules", my neice slept on her front, nephew on his side and now we're being told to put them on their backs. My mw told me it simply comes down to statistics- numbers of cd fell when we started putting babies on their backs. There's no reason or evidence so I would go with what your baby prefers. I always worried when ds was little as he was quite sicky and would always choke on it. I don't think on their backs is particularly great.

my ds has slept on his tummy since he was about 6mths and i've also given up constantly turning him over. he's 1 next saturday. he actually sleeps on his tummy with his bum in the air.

I think he'll be fine. My mum put us all on our tummies from birth and we're all right!

Once they roll themselves onto their tummies you don't need to worry. I mean, think about it logically (she says with the advantage of having a 17 month old brain ), what are you supposed to do in any case... keep setting your alarm for every half hour to check?
He's fine

Thanks for your advice. I'll do what I thought deep down and just let him get on with it. If he wasn't really comfy I suppose he wouldn't do it !!! It doesn't really help parents when they are already worried about it and then there is a stupid news report on the telly the other week that makes you feel even worse !!!

My DS started doing this at 4 months. It used to scare us and after about two, pointless weeks of constantly moving him back onto his back, we accepted that there wasn't much we could do about it.

It was worrying but he did it of his own accord and we really should have just let him get on with it. Up until that point he had been a good sleeper but our constant interferance, rolling him over etc, destroyed that and took a long time to sort out.

At 6 months the cot death risk reduced very significantly and basically, as he is getting there himself, I would just leave him to do it and not worry. Give him pleanty of floor time so he can improve his 'rolling back' skills.