Sleeping on Tummy at 5 weeks

[lovinit]

DD1 slept on tummy from around 2 mths .. I tried it with DD2 today and for a while last night as I found that she settled better and did not keep on jumping and waking herself up ... She is able to turn her head (i watched her !) ... When did you let yours and do you think that it is very dangerous to do so now ? My Mum says that we all did from birth ...

Hi Lovinit

There is some research that says sleeping a small baby on their tummy increases the risk of SIDS (or cot death as it is also known). Can't remember the exact info on how old a baby should be before you sleep them on the tummy (a google search will tell you)

We slept DS on his tummy from a couple of weeks old. He had colic and would not settle any other way. But I would not have done so if I had not had a baby motion sensor monitor (which detects when they stop breathing, and sounds an alarm if they stop breathing). Look here for some examples. We had the Hi Sense one (the one with the elephant picture on it) and it was great. It did not give any false alarms, but did go off once when DS stopped breathing (he had turned blue and was all limp by the time I got to him). He started breathing on his own after I picked him up (I gave him a gentle shake out of fright and that got him going - not recommended to shake them at all, I know!). When the alarm went off he was about three months old I think, and was sleeping on his back, with none of the usual "risk" factors for cot death.

The monitor is compact and easy to use. You put a sensor pad under the cot (or bassinet) matress and hook the control panel on the side of the cot. There is one button to press for on or off.

By the way we had no history of cot death in the family, but DH insisted we get this monitor (which at the time I thought was a waste of time, but after it went off when DS stopped breathing, I was VERY glad we had it).

All 3 of mine slept on their tummies from early on. With DS1 we found t was th eonly way he would settle at night (before that it would take over an hour for him to settle after a night feed). It worried me sick because of the "back to sleep" campaign and SIDS, but I rationalised it that we had none of the other risk factors (eg we didn't smoke).

Apparently babies usually sleep better on their stomachs because of something to do with the way the digestivve tracts circulates. And as you say - when we were babies practically everyone slept their babies on their fronts. My babies all had good neck control from early on and could move their heads (although I am not sure that has any relation to the SIDS research).

If you want to compromise you can try putting (or propping) her on her side.

hi lovinit, im the same as throckenholt, both dd's slept on their fronts from very early on, i found they settled so much more easier, and had less wind/colic.

yet again, if you are worried compromise by putting baby on her side, with rolled up blankets at her back and tucked between her little arms

its good she can turn her head!

another thing you can do is let her fall alseep on her front and then when she is well alseep turn her over on to her back.

Tks for the advice ... I don't really want to turn her on her back as then when she wakes she may want me to turn her back ... I feel nervous abt doing it but I must admit that at the moment she is up so much during the night that I get to check her every couple of hours or so anyway.

Glad that so many other people also did the same !

another one of those "it ain't easy being a parent" moments.

All you can do is take an informed guess at what you think is best in your situation, and hope you made the right choice. And be prepared to cahnge if it looks like you made the wrong choide.

My dd would only settle on her front from the beginning and like you I was worried sick about it. I used to let her fall asleep like that and then turn her on her side with a rolled up pillow behind her back and her bottom arm pulled through to prevent rolling on her tum.. This seemed an ok compromise and I made sure I kept an eye on her. After a while she was fine about being put to sleep on her side at bedtime and did this until recently (shes now 23 weeks). About a month ago I started to put her down on her back and she adapted no probs.
What Im trying to say is that it may be a shortlived phase anyway and with a bit of encouragement you could probably get her onto her side at least.
Good luck
lilupix x

Both of mine slept on their tummies from birth as they kept hitting themselves and disturbing themselves. It did freak me out as I kept thinking 'what if' but both have slept well ever since.

Difficult isnt it, this parenting lark??!!