Tummy Sleeping?

[Charmie981]

What's your take on this? DS2 (three weeks) doesn't sleep alone unless he's on his tummy. I've been putting him down for his naps in his crib on his tummy and checking on him frequently. At night he's in bed with us, so I don't stress about it as much. This whole "back to sleep" campaign has me freaked out about tummy sleeping, but I have to remember that the "back to sleep" campaign is created by the same people who are crusading against co-sleeping because it's so unsafe as well.

Is anyone else guilty of letting baby sleep on his or her tummy?

[jessikate]

My DD will not sleep on her tummy (screams if I leave her on her tummy for more than a minute or so), so I'm no help there. But there's a thread in Nighttime Parenting and The Family Bed (or whatever the heck it's called now) about this.

Here

[steffanie3]

Ryan likes sleeping on his side or tummy, I just check on him during naps like you do.

Stephanie

[Worldshakerz]

When Jakob was born he would ONLY sleep on his tummy. I always checked on thim though (but I do this whether he sleeps on tummy, or back). He went through a phase where he would only sleep on his back (4mos til now). He is 6 mos now and he mostly sleeps on his side or belly. We co-sleep so he falls asleep on his side, sometimes he stays like that other times he rolls over. When he naps it's the same. He's been tummy sleeping again for the last few weeks.

[jackson's mama]

Jackson has been a tummy sleeper since he was about 6 weeks old. He would do fine at first, then he wouldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes on his back, even in a tight swaddle. So I didn't let him nap alone until he could raise his head well, and even then I checked on him often.

I too am fearful because of the "back to sleep" campaign. I usually don't mention that I let Jackson tummy sleep for fear of someone thinking, 'Well, if she does it then its OK for me to do it too" and something dreadful happening to their baby.

Since your babe is too young to be able to turn his head by himself, have you tried side-sleeping? Many babies find this position comforting as well. You can roll up a blanket and wedge it in behind him, and still swaddle him up tight. The other thing we did that Jackson found comforting was to swaddle tightly, then tuck a blanket over him and under the mattress edges. It seemed to help him sleep better on his back or side. Good luck!

[jackson's mama]

I wanted to add that although the "back to sleep" campaign was backed by crib makers, its important to remember that the overall number of SIDS deaths *did* decrease since the inception of the campaign. There is something to it. And from what I've heard, babies that die of SIDS don't struggle, don't make any noise, or give any other indication of a problem... so don't rely on a baby monitor to alert you to something. We just need to be *extra* careful if we let our babies sleep on their tummies.

[Stacymom]

Charmie, it sounds liek our babies are a lot alike! I have a tummy sleeper too. Sometimes it makes me alittle paranoid, but I do chaeck on her frequently, and make sure all the other safety guidlines are in place- no blankets, no smoking, not too hot etc. My older dd was a tummy lseeper too, and to this day prefers that position.

[Charmie981]

Originally posted by jackson's mama
Since your babe is too young to be able to turn his head by himself, have you tried side-sleeping?

:LOL I have big babies who like to learn things EARLY. Atley has already rolled over from his tummy to his back twice and lifted his head off of my shoulder and looked around straight out of the womb, so I don't worry that he can't move his head if he starts to smother. My concern is that SIDS is so not understood and that it doesn't seem like SIDS babies really "smother" so much as just stop breathing w/o any notice.

[jackson's mama]

Rolling over at 3 weeks!! Forget about how you want him to sleep, he's going to decide for himself and there'll be nothing you can do about it.

I agree with you about SIDS being a big mystery. Its a big sary unknown, and that makes it hard to do anything that goes against the stats. Just know that you're not the only one bucking the trend on this one .

[lauraess]

I wanted to say that there were times when I'd let my baby sleep on her stomach with the thinking that a: she's bf and so that is way in her favor ; b: we dont smoke and I think thats got to be in her favor here; c: there seems to be no real evidence or understanding of sids after all this time so imho its really one of those things that probobly cant be avoided if its meant to happen.
this may be all wrong but put together with the evidence that the so-called expert's are not all that knowledgeable or rational as in bfing and cosleeping and vaccines and what else????... well you know???
hey, sometimes when it comes to sleep mamas know best.
Laura

[seren]

When I went to my midwife for one of my post delivery chech-ups I told her that my ds (now 3 1/2 months) was a tummy sleeper, just like my daughter. She told me that there had just been a new publication by whoever it was that did the back to sleep (can't remember who it was) and they said that there were just as many sids cases with babies sleeping on their back. so it didn't really matter how they slept. Now I'm going to go post this on the other paga as well.

Serenity

[lauraess]

this got me reading my baby books and looking for info. since it's been a while that read anything current, I was wondering what the latest studies show. I know there was some significant decline in the rates when back to sleep was promoted but there was a concern that it had happened mostly since the overall awareness was brought out and that rates were also totally reduced in one case studied by dr Sears and using cosleeping.
Anyone know?
Laura

[Harper]

My baby girl has slept on her tummy since she was about six weeks old. My sister's pediatrician actually recommended it to her and she to me. It really helped my dd to take better naps. She went from sleeping for 15 to 20 minutes to about an hour. I figured that there were a lot of other things recommended to stop SIDS at the same time as sleeping on their backs including no smoking, no blankets, cooler temperature, so there was really no way to know what exactly caused the decrease. Also, as someone else already said, SIDS isn't really smothering to death.