why is front sleeping high risk??my 9wk old favours this position

[steph1512]

hi just wondered if any one knows any detailed info on front sleeping my 9wk old doesnt settle as soon as laid on his back but i tried him on his fornt and he slept soundly

Problem is despite all the comments of we all slpet on our front from older relatives i cannot relax and was checking him every minute.

Nobody really knows why 'back to sleep' reduces SIDS.

Thoughts are that front sleepers may retain more heat from their heads/ may be more at risk of mechanical obstruction from sheets and blankets.

Also that sleeping soundly may nor be protective for some babies. Maybe a small proportion of babies benefit from restless sleep as they are more rousable and if there are issues for those babies in the respiratory centres of the brain, then being more rousable and easily stimulated, helps them to breathe.

Lots of people on these boards will say they front slept their babies and they were fine- the problem is that we don't always know which babies are high risk.

We don't know why. All anyone knows is that when babies started to be routinely put to sleep on their backs, fewer died of SIDS. So, presumably some children are now alive because they slept on their backs rather than on their front (barring some unexpected other factor that noone has spotted).

Ds would definitely have slept better on his front but given that I would wake in the night and hardly breathe myself until I heard him take a breath, putting him to sleep on his front would have given me no rest anyway.

Your baby - it's only advice, but personally it's not a risk I would take. I've taken other risks though (I coslept when ds was tiny) so it's not completely straightforward.

My 11wk sleeps on her front, and has done since she was about 4wks.

It is a difficult one because you have to weigh up all sorts of risks and make a judgement. And I do understand that people will disagree with the decision that I've made, but TBH I'll probably disagree with decisions that they've made. We're all just trying to do the best we can in the situation we find ourselves in.

It's a horrible situation to be in, I know, because my DS was the same. We got into a ridiculous situation where I'd let him settle himself to sleep on his front, then creep in and 'flip' him onto his back. Once he started turning himself onto his front I relaxed a bit - wasn't much else I could do by that point really. But I do sympathise, I could never rest easy until I knew he was sleeping on his back.

Hi thanks for responses last few days i have put him to sleep on his front for naps while i am close by...then last night on his front at bedtime!

I decided that this way is how he is comfortable and weighed it up with the the risks of co-sleeping (which is what i have been doing for the last couple of weeks)

From what ive read it seem the risks are prob similar therefore decided if he settles on his back ill leave him if he is not settling will try him on his front..and im hoping ill be able to relax once he can roll and decide for himself.

Never had this with my first two dds they always self settled very well from an early age pretty much anywhere..used to go into the kitchen and go back to find my first dd crashed out on play gym!!

i still don't understand the 'no front' thing...my baby is only 8 weeks and sleeps on her back but what happens when they can roll over themselves in the night?

do i have to wake in the night to flip onto back?

Nope missytequila - once they can roll you can leave em be.

In regards to OP nobody is really sure. Front sleeping became fashionable because Dr Spock that doyen of child rearing told parents in his manuals that this is how babies should be placed. He had no real evidence to back this up though and inadvertantly many babies may have died as a result.

The "Back to Sleep" campaign was a massive success and the rate of SIDS dropped dramatically in the year after it was started.

If they can roll over by themselves then it's fine and no more risky than back sleeping.

Personally I think the risks of co-sleeping are overstated. The research into co-sleeping included figures of people falling asleep on sofas etc and people who had drunk alcohol, or who were smokers, so they don't really know that it is any less safe than cot sleeping.

Some people even think that co-sleeping is safer because it's what we are hard wired to want to do! There is definitely evidence which points to the baby's breathing "synchronising" with the parent's breathing when they sleep close together, hence the advice to keep baby in the same room as you for all sleeps (including naps) until 6 months.

Not saying you should go back to co-sleeping if you don't want to, just wanted to make you aware so you could make a more informed choice

DD slept on her front from 4 weeks. I had no option to save my sanity. Sometimes you have to weigh up the risks.

I have to say I have never understood the sleep on back thing. To me it seems much safer to sleep baby on front so that if she vomits in sleep it drains, rather than going down the throat.

I sleep DD on her back BTW

well for the last2days my ds now 10weeks has had all sleeps on his front including hte night..which he has slept through!

I havent had to try settling him to sleep with rocking etc either its like he just breathes a sigh of relief as soon as i lay him on his front and goes to sleep.

Although this still hasnt really made me feel anymore comfortable about it as im constantly worrying about something happening so now he seems to have slipped into a day and night sleep pattern i might try him on his back again as at least i know when he is tried now.

I have to say it is confusing as HV says once they can roll themselves to leave them!!? But when u read up on SIDS it said the chances of it happening increase after 9weeks by which point some babies (not many i know) are rolling onto their front.

If you are worrying about it, why not get a movement sensor to detect your baby's breathing? If nothing else, it would give you more peace of mind.

The SIDS risks are (as I understand it) calculated through statistical analysis, so researchers can only theorise as to why certain things are higher risk. It's just that statistically significantly fewer babies have died where certain factors were not present (front sleeping, parental smoking, overheating etc.) Of course, most babies were put to sleep on their fronts in years gone by (including me and my sister, among others) and the vast majority were fine. And it was because of the belief that the baby could choke on its vomit during sleep - apparently that's not now regarded as a danger when infants are put to sleep on their backs.