Front sleeping babies... reassurance?

[pookamoo]

I know the advice is to put babies to sleep on their backs, but DD has taken to napping on her front. She is 11 weeks old and very good at moving her head from side to side, she has a very strong neck. She can't roll over yet though.

Mums whose babies all slept on their fronts - please reassure me that it's ok for her to nap on her tummy?

Mums whose babies will nap on their backs - how do you manage to turn the baby over without waking her up?

She does sleep on her back at night. It's just that the best way I have found to soothe her for naps is the "tiger in the tree" position, but as soon as you try to turn her over she wakes up! That's even before you put her down.

She will be ok, won't she? If I keep checking on her?

I'm not very good at breaking the "rules" and I've been following all the advice so far - feet to foot (she is, anyway, even on her tummy) etc...

Personally I would not worry too much about a healthy baby sleeping on her front.

I have had 1 back-, 1 front-, and 1 side sleeper : position always decided on whatever baby in question preferred and was most likely to stay asleep in , IYKWIM.

Lots of coutries on the continent still advocate front sleeping, it can be the recommended position for babies with bad reflux problems, I survived being a "sleeping on front baby".

If SIDS is what you are worried about, there are load of other ways to reduce the risk of a disaster happening: most importantly to live in a non-smoking household, making sure baby is not too hot etc.

IMO, do what feels right for you and your child

Mine slept soundly on his front from the day he could turn himself over. Before that, I put him down on his back but he never slept very well. But I couldn't bring myself to ignore the guidance until he could 'choose' for himself.

If you want reassurance, you could get one of those breathing monitors, or have her in a moses basket/carrycot in the room where you are (living room etc) while she naps, until she is old enough to roll?

Other than that I agree with Mummyfor3. And at least she is spending her longest sleep on her back

My DD was the same as yours at 10 weeks. She would only nap lying on her tummy on me or DH or on her back in the pram or car seat. She slept fine on her back in the cot at night. This was a bit of a nightmare as no chance of a nap for me during the day. She also wouldn't take a dummy until about 10 weeks. Once she took a dummy at nap time she managed to get herself off to sleep on her back in the cot (most times!). I usually had to go in a couple of times to put the dummy back in until she was properly asleep as she would start grouching when it fell out. I still let her nap lying on me sometimes cos she is so cosy and I love her being snuggled into me (as long as I'm not too tired)

Both my DCs wouldn't sleep at all on their backs. They both slept on their fronts from about 5 weeks (and their exausted parents breathed a sigh of relief!) I did however look at all other SIDS factors before doing this and reduced anything I could. I will point out that both my 2 were strong sort of babies and could hold their heads up off the cot practically from birth. They are 2 and 4 now.

DD2 is 8 weeks and I've always put her on her tummy to sleep as she'd scream if put down on her back at any time- have since found out she has silent reflux.

I don't worry about it, she spent her first 10 days in NICU where she (and most other babies) was always put on tummy to sleep in incubator by the nurses.

Ds is 17 weeks and sleeps on his tummy or not at all. He is another very strong baby, and our other SIDS risk factors are low. I do worry a bit about it, but he is right next to me at night, and only occasionally gets put down during the day at the moment anyway. I've also bought a pur-flo mattress for his cot to ease my worry a little further.