When did you put DS/DD in his/her own room?

[Gangle]

DS is 13 weeks and in the next few weeks will probably outgrow the moses basket and need to move to his cot. His cot is currently in his bedroom which is right next to ours but I was planning to move it into our room until he was at least 6 months old, however, a friend of mine with a baby the same ages says she is going to move her DD into her own room at that point. I've read it can be very hard to settle a 6 month old in their own room so better to do it early as possible but I just feel DS is too little to be left in a big dark room all alone plus it reduces the risk of cot death if the baby shares with his parent. Any thoughts on best age to do it?

Oh yeah meant to add - we bought a plug in night light which we still use so the room is not pitch black.

We waited till 7 months, she just seemed too small before then plus was bf'ing at night. DH initiated the move- I dont think I would have ever done it, but we did all start to sleep better after it, with less night feeding.

But when she got too big for her moses basket we bought a travel cot to put in our bedroom for her. Her own bedroom had an enormous cotbed. We still frequently put her in the travel cot next to us for a nights sleep, if, say shes been ill, or if we have friends staying in spare room. Its been a great purchase.

DS moved into the spare room at around 6 months with no problems.

DD snored so loudly that she moved into the bathroom (complete with moses basket) at about 7 days!!

do other people's babies snort a lot at night too? mine sounds like a little piglet and makes so much noise sometimes i think she's choking in her sleep, but through it all she's still fast asleep.. is that normal?

FrannyandZooey - I read about the regulating the breathing thing too. It didn't make sense to me and I found no statistical explanation for it.

I found the SIDS advice regarding this matter extremely frustrating, especially as so many people therefore essentially had no choice other than to share a room because 'it's not worth the risk.'

I don't know what you mean by 'statistical explanation'?

There's always a choice in our parenting decisions, but it's important that we are aware of the facts and risks before we make our decisions. I'm not sure what you mean by 'so many people essentially had no choice', either?

I mean that I thought the stats were not sound.

I mean that people 'essentially' had no choice because the 'stats' said put your baby in their own room or risk SIDS so they basically had no choice because what parent in their right mind would risk that.

Just seemed unfair to me to put yet more pressure on tired parents due to flimsy evidence (for that one piece of advice, to be clear, not the other stuff about smoking etc. which seemed to have much more sound evidence.)

DS2 nearly 13 months and still in same room as us.
Co slept fully at first now goes in cot once asleep and comes into bed anytime between 11pm and 3.30 am whenever he wakes for some milk. pg with no 3 now so will probably move him into DS1's room at around 17/18 (he'll be 20 or so minths we think) months so the new bubba can come in with us and it won't be too much of a shock what with new baby and room change.

dd is now 23 weeks and almost ready to move into her own room according to the guidelines. I thought that by the time we got to this point I would be more than ready for her to move but I actually don't really want her to go!
I just find it so much easier from the point of view of feedign and my own peace of mind really - she started to roll onto her front in her sleep at around 19 weeks so I was up about 300 times a night checking on her! She actually sleeps really well, going 10 - 8 with only one feed each night and is not disturbed by dh's loud snores or the dog who sleeps under the bed and regularly howls in his sleep! I think that the fact that she's shared a room with us has made her somewhat 'bombproof' and helped her to sleep through some disturbance where if she'd been in her own room and used to no noise at all she might still be waking at the smallest sound.
I know dh will be more keen to move her than me so i am just not going to mention it and see how long i can get away with it for...

10 weeks

Springer, why do you think the stats are not sound? Are you a statistician?

ds 1 5-6 weeks (now 4.4)
ds 2 6 weeks (no 8 months)

both are in their rooms with the door shut and they love their beds!

springer, why do you think the stats are not sound?
the evidence is there that sleeping with the baby in the room reduces the risk of cot death. the evidence isn't flimsy either - the SIDS guidelines (back to sleep etc) since they were introduced have saved the lives of thousands of babies, I think we could do with a little perspective here. it isn't about making parents feel guilty, it is about saving babies.

My baby - 9 weeks - naps in the day upstairs in her moses basket inside her cotbed with the blackout blind closed. I find that she won't settle as well if I keep her downstairs with me with all the noise around (I have a noisy toddler!)

She sleeps like that as well after her bath between 7-10pm with me and DH downstairs and the monitor next to her. I check on her every 30 minutes or so.

I was thinking of putting her in the room all night at about 4 months old when the risk of SIDs goes down.

I also cannot understand why having them in the same room as you reduces the risk of cotdeath. I would drive myself crazy with this advice because surely it means that during the daytime as well when they have their naps, they need to be next to you all the time. With a toddler about I simply cannot do this. I am just praying that she will be alright with regular checks etc.

The SIDs cases I have personal experience of have both happened during the daytime when having daytime naps.

Sleeping in a separate room for daytime naps does also increase the risk. (See this
BBC article):

"They found three-quarters of babies who died during the day were sleeping in a room where an adult was not present. The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, studied 1,625 children."

I agree though sophiebb that this is tricky to arrange with a toddler as well.

I thought the SIDS guidelines re sharing a room weren't just to help regulate the baby's breathing. I had understood that because the baby is in with you, s/he has to put up with a general level of background noise (mum/ dad snoring, moving around etc) which prevents him/her from falling into a really deep sleep (which could be a factor in SIDS).

dd was 6 months, I was more upset that she was about it...she was only next door and I could still here her.

my DT's were 4 months when they went into their own room. We don't have a big bedroom so to start with they were in a travel cot together, then as they got bigger, they were in a cot bed together (we moved a chest of drawers out into their room to make room), but by 4 months the half of the cot bed that they had each was getting too small and there was no way we could fit 2 cotbeds in our room as well as our double bed, so we moved them. They were 11 weeks prem too, so essentially had only been home for 2 months when we moved them.

I guess with the SIDS thing, they had each other to help regulate breathing - they slept through from 5 months.

dramasequalzero - thanks for the article. Right, baby is staying downstairs with me now for her naps despite the toddler. I am always really tempted to put her upstairs, in part because I have read 'Gina' and she says to put the baby down in their own room between 7-10pm and for their daytime naps. Was not aware of this evidence in the article.

Does anyone know when it is 'relatively' safe to stop doing this eg 6 months?

Sophie IIRC the risk does go down after about 6 months.

Good luck with the naps thing. I'm going to have the same problem when DC#2 arrives in Nov. Hopefully they'll just get used to the noise!

3 days. Noisy little thing! I could hear her through two closed doors.

I give up. I read the paper. I have a degree in maths. I thought the evidence was flimsy and poorly researched. The end. Read the orgingal paper yourself and make your own mind up, that's all I'm saying. That isn't contraversial surely?

As I said multiple times in this thread, I'm not saying all the SIDS guidelines are based on flimsy evidence. I was only focussing on the 'own room' point.

Which paper Springer? (I'm not having a go. Just trying to clarify.)

Also Springer, please don't give up on us. If you have a degree in maths, and have read the research on SIDS risks and can see flaws, then please explain them to us - it's always helpful for parents to have someone with statistical knowledge to translate research studies into plain English.

Yes Springer - if you have read the original article and think the stats are dodgy then please let us know!!! I really want to put DD into her own room for some of her naps but having read this am scared to now....

My DH (and my mum) think I am crazy and read too much stuff which is scaremongering me (he is Italian). You are right in your point that so much pressure is put on mums due to flimsy evidence. I was so worried when I was pregnant and drank the odd glass of wine because of all the stuff you read in the press....