Sleeping FACE down!

[Friendlee]

My little one sleeps on her belly but recently she's been smooshing her nose into the mattress and sleeping totally face down, sometime she's mostly face down but turns just slightly (still smooshing one nostril completey). She does this after nursing too...she bury her face in my robe. Or even if she falls asleep on my shoulder she'll go face down on the burp cloth.

How dangerous is this? If I adjust her, she wakes immediately. She's about 6 months old and can easily push up so far that her belly is off the ground, but she doesn't roll yet. If she were awake, I know she could move her face, but I guess my fear is that she won't rouse, like what happens with SIDS. Is SIDS still a major concern in a 6 month old?

[lovepiggie]

I know that SIDS risk goes down when a baby is 6 months old, probably because of their ability to roll/lift their heads better. Although if you say she isn't rolling yet...

I just wanted to say that my DS started doing that too, around that age. Just totally face flat in the bed. All I could do was just gently tilt his head to the side a bit, or maybe press down on the mattress by her face to create an air flow. You wouldn't get any sleep that way, but you'd get to stay up staring at your beautiful baby!

[Hannah'sMommy]

Our daughter likes to sleep with her face down sometimes too, though not as much as she used to. She's 7.5 months now, and I think she started doing it around 4 months, whenever she started rolling over and she discovered she likes sleeping on her stomach. I don't like it, but I can't stay up all night watching her. Most of the time now when her face is down, she'll put her hands under her face to keep her face off the mattress a little. It took me a little while to get used to the idea, but now I'm mostly comfortable with it and trust she'll move her head if she needs to (she can also crawl, which helps ease my nerves a little).

[maptome]

I posted a similar question: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...106&highlight=

DD stopped doing it almost right away, like maybe a week later. She still prefers to sleep on her tummy, but now she always turns her head a little.

[Kelly1101]

If she's not rolling yet, I wouldn't do it. I don't know if that's rational or not, but it would scare me.

[pumpkinhead]

Do you put her on her belly to sleep and she doesn't roll there herself? If so, I wouldn't do it. When my babies started rolling by themselves I figured I really wasn't in control of how they slept anymore and let them do as they liked. I didn't ever put them belly down though.