OK so I'm not looking to start a HUGE debate here. Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with a healthy debate...so here goes.
My baby is 2 months old and he has a very hard time sleeping on his back. He will fall asleep in my arms and sometimes for a little while in his carseat because it props him upright a bit, but as soon as I try to lay him down in his crib or in a bassinet, or one of his other "containers", he wakes up within 5 minutes. I know people say to swaddle him, but it's July and hot as ever and even on cooler nights, he fights his way out of the swaddlers. He basically won't sleep in the crib unless he is absolutely exhausted, and even then he doesn't seem to sleep well. He kicks around and seems generally restless and unhappy in his sleep.
It seems as soon as I flip him around on his tummy, he immediately cozies up and scrunches up his knees and falls asleep right away. I wonder if babies were "meant" to be sleeping on their tummies and sides and we are going against nature by forcing them to sleep on their backs? To get him to sleep at night, I always lay him on his side next to me in bed, then nurse him to sleep. He falls asleep on his side, then when I move away a little, he rolls onto his tummy and sighs a big happy sigh and sleeps away. Then, after a little while of watching every breath he takes, I always get paranoid because he is on his tummy and flip him around again, which makes him wake up again. Even if I can get him to sleep on his back for a few minutes, he'll always flail his arms and startle himself awake, which does not happen when he's on his tummy.
So my question is, aside from the risk of SIDS (which I admit is a HUGE risk and in no way am I advocating that parents should overlook this...please don't take it that way!) are babies getting good enough sleep on their backs? Obviously not all babies are like mine and maybe some sleep very well on their backs, but I have talked to a lot of other moms who deal with the same sleep issues as me.
I've read some studies that have shown that many babies are reaching developmental and social milestones later because of this and know a lot of moms who really struggle with tummy time because the baby is not accustomed to being on the tummy. I also know a mom who had to have her son's head fixed because of a massive flat spot that developed and doctors even proposed having him wear a helmet all day for a few months!
Does anyone know if there is a link between kids being diagnosed with things like Autism and ADHD and the whole "Back to Sleep" campaign, which started in the early nineties? I would think that if babies are taking longer to reach milestones, that could be something they use as a marker for these types of disorders and cause more kids to be diagnosed. A friend of mine works as an "early intervention specialist" and her job is to go into houses and evaluate babies and toddlers to see if they are at risk for Autism. They use these developmental "milestone markers" as ways to diagnose the babies so I wonder if all of this ties together??
In terms of SIDS, I wonder if it's the tummy sleeping per se, or if it's something else that is making it correlate but not necessarily cause it. For instance, some theories are that mattresses have toxins in them, like flame retardants, which cause babies to breathe in more of when sleeping on tummies (a fix could be to get an organic mattress maybe?) Smokers might have a higher level of toxins in their furniture in general which could account for the higher rate in smoking houses...Rates are higher in the winter because babies are kind of shut in around these toxins and don't get as much fresh air allowing their furniture to "air out."
Have SIDS rates declined because we are more aware of it in general? People have started getting better prenatal care? We have become more health conscious? We smoke less around babies? Smoking has been banned in many public places where previously it was not? We use baby monitors and check on babies more because of our SIDS paranoia? We are more aware of other risk factors? Was the decline in SIDS just from flipping babies around or was it something else?
Personally I believe Autism has many causes, which is why we haven't narrowed it down to just one thing and why we have been able to "rule out" so many things that probably do cause it in some cases but who really knows. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud here and wondering if anyone wants to weigh in. Again, I'm not promoting changing what doctors are advising but I am questioning the quality of sleep our babies are getting and looking for more information if anyone knows of it. This campaign has been going on for 18 or so years now so I'm thinking it's about time we evaluated how well it's worked out.
Thoughts? Experiences? Advice for getting my baby to sleep better on his back?
My baby is 2 months old and he has a very hard time sleeping on his back. He will fall asleep in my arms and sometimes for a little while in his carseat because it props him upright a bit, but as soon as I try to lay him down in his crib or in a bassinet, or one of his other "containers", he wakes up within 5 minutes. I know people say to swaddle him, but it's July and hot as ever and even on cooler nights, he fights his way out of the swaddlers. He basically won't sleep in the crib unless he is absolutely exhausted, and even then he doesn't seem to sleep well. He kicks around and seems generally restless and unhappy in his sleep.
It seems as soon as I flip him around on his tummy, he immediately cozies up and scrunches up his knees and falls asleep right away. I wonder if babies were "meant" to be sleeping on their tummies and sides and we are going against nature by forcing them to sleep on their backs? To get him to sleep at night, I always lay him on his side next to me in bed, then nurse him to sleep. He falls asleep on his side, then when I move away a little, he rolls onto his tummy and sighs a big happy sigh and sleeps away. Then, after a little while of watching every breath he takes, I always get paranoid because he is on his tummy and flip him around again, which makes him wake up again. Even if I can get him to sleep on his back for a few minutes, he'll always flail his arms and startle himself awake, which does not happen when he's on his tummy.
So my question is, aside from the risk of SIDS (which I admit is a HUGE risk and in no way am I advocating that parents should overlook this...please don't take it that way!) are babies getting good enough sleep on their backs? Obviously not all babies are like mine and maybe some sleep very well on their backs, but I have talked to a lot of other moms who deal with the same sleep issues as me.
I've read some studies that have shown that many babies are reaching developmental and social milestones later because of this and know a lot of moms who really struggle with tummy time because the baby is not accustomed to being on the tummy. I also know a mom who had to have her son's head fixed because of a massive flat spot that developed and doctors even proposed having him wear a helmet all day for a few months!
Does anyone know if there is a link between kids being diagnosed with things like Autism and ADHD and the whole "Back to Sleep" campaign, which started in the early nineties? I would think that if babies are taking longer to reach milestones, that could be something they use as a marker for these types of disorders and cause more kids to be diagnosed. A friend of mine works as an "early intervention specialist" and her job is to go into houses and evaluate babies and toddlers to see if they are at risk for Autism. They use these developmental "milestone markers" as ways to diagnose the babies so I wonder if all of this ties together??
In terms of SIDS, I wonder if it's the tummy sleeping per se, or if it's something else that is making it correlate but not necessarily cause it. For instance, some theories are that mattresses have toxins in them, like flame retardants, which cause babies to breathe in more of when sleeping on tummies (a fix could be to get an organic mattress maybe?) Smokers might have a higher level of toxins in their furniture in general which could account for the higher rate in smoking houses...Rates are higher in the winter because babies are kind of shut in around these toxins and don't get as much fresh air allowing their furniture to "air out."
Have SIDS rates declined because we are more aware of it in general? People have started getting better prenatal care? We have become more health conscious? We smoke less around babies? Smoking has been banned in many public places where previously it was not? We use baby monitors and check on babies more because of our SIDS paranoia? We are more aware of other risk factors? Was the decline in SIDS just from flipping babies around or was it something else?
Personally I believe Autism has many causes, which is why we haven't narrowed it down to just one thing and why we have been able to "rule out" so many things that probably do cause it in some cases but who really knows. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud here and wondering if anyone wants to weigh in. Again, I'm not promoting changing what doctors are advising but I am questioning the quality of sleep our babies are getting and looking for more information if anyone knows of it. This campaign has been going on for 18 or so years now so I'm thinking it's about time we evaluated how well it's worked out.
Thoughts? Experiences? Advice for getting my baby to sleep better on his back?
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