I quite often put Cameron to sleep on his tummy - prerolling - but I only did it during the day so I could go in and check on him. He seemed to sleep better this way. About a month ago he has begun rolling back to tummy, and most mornings we find him on his tummy (he sleeps through) so not sure when he flips, but sometimes hear him after I put him down at night talking and singing, so I'm sure he sometimes flips at the beginning of the night - so obviously he likes his tummy whether I've put him there or not.
DS2 was rolling at 3 1/2 weeks, so it wasn't pre-rolling age, but I started sleeping him on his tummy really early. The thing was, it was the only way he would sleep for ages and TBH I wish I'd realised that sooner. It might have saved us a lot of grief. I knew it was against the SIDS recommendations, but then I'm not sure that it's safe to have a really tired mum either, especially when driving etc. So sleep is important too. I did have an angelcare monitor though, so theoretically we would have been alerted if he stopped breathing. But you know, the risk of tummy sleeping for SIDS is minimal and partly theoretical (ie no-one really knows what causes it), so sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. HTH.
thanks girls
His bassinette only has a foam mattress in it - no monitor or breathe easy stuff.
But he gets the worse tummy pains sometimes crying up to 8 hrs a day in pain and i find it helps him on his belly.
Mia loves being on her tummy and i have put her on it to get her to sleep somedays. When she is asleep tho, i do roll her back over.. if i didnt i would freak and be checking her every 5 seconds. Tho ive never heard of these breathing moniters.. are they just like regular moniters?
holly - the monitors have panels that go under the cot mattress and tthe alarm goes off if their breathinbg slows down. most people have the angelcare one - i have a different brand.
Yeah, Si is. He rolled and pushed himself up at 2 weeks - though I think that was an accident from having such an arched back from wind - all that arching and wriggling made him pretty strong. We probably figured the tummy thing out a little later than 3 weeks, maybe 8weeks when he started sleeping through, and how that happened was that we'd start him on his back, and then when he woke, we flipped him to his tummy. Wasn't long before dh just started him off on his tummy in the first place.
You know all the other SIDS recommendations though, so you can still keep those. Nothing that could cover his face, no toys in cot, nice firm mattress, good airflow in room. Don't wrap him either, at least not his arms. Make sure he won't overheat, I've heard that's the main issue with tummy sleeping - my MCHN said that when I was little (my generation were mostly tummy slept) there wasn't too much central heating around, so bedrooms and babies tended to stay a bit cooler.
Great honest thread... can be such a taboo subject to raise hey?
All 3 of mine slept on their tummies from birth. With my first I just intuitively knew that there was no-way-known she was going to sleep on her back. For a start she had a huge bump on the back of her head from a vacuum extraction... it looked sooo sore and i just couldn't make her lie on it (it went down quite quickly though... a matter of days).
With my second I started to ask my MCHNs and doctors how dangerous it really was. Some of them told me that as long as ALL the other SIDS guidelines were strictly adhered to it should be ok. My son also was just not interested in back sleeping either.
With my third I spoke to a MCHN that told me that she encounters about 1 in 10 babies that refuse to back sleep. She said it usually co-incides with good neck strength (yes to all 3 of mine)... and that it also "ran in familes".
All my babies have been able to hold their heads up for longer than usual periods from birth.
Also none of them could bare swaddling. I don't think you should swaddle and tummy sleep... mine needed their arm strength to lift and move their heads.
I really think it can be done safely... a firm mattress is extremely important though... and no cot bumpers.
If I had forced my babies to back sleep it would have been so traumatic... however I rarely recommend it to new mums... I wouldn't like to say that it was the right thing to do and then have a tragedy occur. I really think it should be something that is "sanity checked" by a professional.
ETA: great point Nelle about central heating. We have it but keep it off overnight.
Last edited by Bathsheba; October 31st, 2008 at 05:43 PM.
bath - what do you mean by sanity checked lol!
It is a bit of a controversial topic isnt it. And i dont want it to turn into a sids attack - so happy that people has left supportive comments
We have a bassinette with a firm foam mattress in our room. No toys or anything and i wouldnt wrap him.
Atm we are co sleeping and he is on his side snuggled into me on my side.
I could put him in his big cot but he looks so little in there!!
DD was a back sleeper but in a sleeping bag she hated the swaddles but she didnt have the wind pain like DS does!
"Sanity checking": Oh that's just my generic phrase for "running it by someone so you are more confident that it's ok". I didn't mean to make it sound like people are "not sane" by allowing babies to tummy sleep Far from it! I really think that for some babies it is the best way.
PinkPalace - I had just posted about this same topic too as DD likes belly sleeping although has been good sleeping on her side this past week or so as her belly pain has been minimal.
I mentioned the "tummy" sleeping at my mothers group and got the worse look from the clinic nurse, and kinda made an example of what not to do for the rest of the group. Having said that though plenty of bub's tummy sleep (as I found out from BB mummies) and so I'm happy with it for DD when she wants to.
I do have an angelcare monitor though for some reassurance. If bubba doesn't breathe for 20 seconds an initial alarm goes on both the nursery monitor - a long beep - (to try to wake bubba and get them breathing again) and also the parent unit, if nothing in a few more second then the full blown alarm sounds constantly on both units to alarm the parents and also to try to alarm the baby. Some hospitals don't recommend them as parents can be blaise (not sure of spelling) about the alarm if it goes off too many times without issue but as long as you treat the alarm as a sign of a problem and not just think (oh it's going off again) then it is worthwhile. Also need to make sure it is setup correctly so you don't get false alarms.
If you don't have one and can't find one to borrow maybe try ebay for a used one. Just a matter of running a test on it when you first get it, put bubba on it, take them off but leave monitor going and it should detect no movement/breathing after 20 seconds, if alarm goes off then the unit should be all ok.
Who else sleeps their newborn on their tummy
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