When did you start leaving your baby for day time naps?

[Thecopperone]

My first little one has been a dream so far but recently really fights sleeping in the day, she’s super alert and active and then gets all worked up when she’s over tired.

Her daytime routine is pretty regular but the sleeps only last short amounts of time whether that’s in the pram or contact naps. Only time she sleeps well is at night or in the car.

I decided to try her in her cot for her lunchtime nap, did the usual bedtime routine of cuddles and singing, carefully place into the next to me crib. I put the monitor on for the first time and have come downstairs.

I’ve just googled when I should be leaving my baby for naps on their own and it says from 6 months, under that I should be staying in the room with her.

Is this true?

Just use a monitor and carry it around with you. Or if she's in carry cot down stairs I'd just stay down stairs with all indoors open (as long as you have no cats or dogs)

The guidance is that they should be in the room with you for first 6 months. I have mine in Moses basket downstairs but usually not right by me, often in the hall actually so I can see from the kitchen. Or sometimes outside if nice weather!

Yes, that's correct. It's not about using a monitor it's about having someone breathing in the same space - it helps the baby regulate their own breathing and reduces the SIDS risk.

I always popped mine outside for afternoon naps. I know guidance blah, blah, but different countries have different guidance, and I went with what I was comfortable with. They often didn't even sleep, but spent hours watching the birds, and leaves moving in the breeze. Free entertainment and fresh air. Perfect.

I left mine alone for the start of night sleep from about 6 weeks as we were putting her down at 8:30pm in her next to me - she suffered with ‘witching hour’ and just would not sleep with the tv and lamp on in the living room like she did in the day. But I wasn’t going to bed until after her 10:30pm dream feed so it was either watch her on the monitor for a few hours peacefully sleeping or have her scream.

A few weeks later I started doing the same for naps so I could do housework etc. without disturbing her.

At 4 months I did naps in her big cot in her own room (alone with monitor) so she had a couple of months to get used to it before moving in there at night too.

Not this again! These threads always blow up. I started leaving mine around 10 weeks, checking regularly.

This

These threads get super militant and really divide opinion.

Some don’t leave their baby alone at all until 6 months, as it is said to reduce SIDS (though no one really knows why).

However, my LO also wouldn’t nap well in a Moses basket etc so the only way to get her to nap at home was in her cot (or on me).

So I started to leave her in her cot on her own from about 4.5 months. I had a monitor and as her room is next to the kitchen I’d pop in regularly (and the nap was usually only 30 mins anyway!).

Do what works for you, and don’t feel guilty if you
choose to leave her in a cot once you’ve weighed up all the research and risks.

We left ours from about 11 weeks with the monitor. The 'evidence' for sharing a room protecting against SIDS is incredibly weak (one case control study asking parents in retrospect about the night their babies died, and lots of other factors more likely to be relevant like baby sleeping in an unusual location that one time), and the breathing regulation thing is as far as I can tell just a theory with little to no evidence which has become gospel on Mumsnet. There is however quite a lot of evidence that babies sleep better if they're not in a room full of other people trying to go about their lives.

How old is she

How many times.... This is repeated again and again. This is not supported by any evidence whatsoever.

The breathing thing always gets trotted out without any strong or hard evidence to back it up and likes its the only protective factor against sids.

The biggest protection against sids is things like clear cot, sleeping on back and not smoking.

I started leaving mine upstairs at 4 months in their cot with a monitor as they were being kept awake by the noise downstairs and had outgrown their moses basket. Even before this if they were downstairs I'd be popping in and out of the room to do housework, toilet etc!

Yes the advice is that until 6 months to be in the room with you for all sleep. Lots of people leave babies earlier, it’s up to you to decide if you want to risk it or not. Personally, we left for short period of time in their cot from 5 months.