So my baby likes to sleep on her belly

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

No idea why, she just started and we can’t get her to stop. She rolls over almost as soon as she hits the mattress, as soon as we roll her over onto her back and she even does it in her sleep too. I came to the bedroom after hearing a noise on the baby monitor and found her, bum in the air and cheek on the mattress.

She seems happy enough like that and its impossible (unless we were to stand at her side all night and keep rolling her) to have her on her back. It worries me but my g/f tells me modern mattresses are supposed to be breathable and if she won’t stop and does it automatically, we may as well accept it.

2

Maybe you could concoct some device with ropes and springs…

3

Don’t worry about it. All three of mine did this and none of them SIDSed. I’d just make sure the bottom sheet is tight and there’s no loose blankets for baby to get tied up in. They also make a waffle-patterned pad thingy you can put under the bottom sheet if you’re worried about SIDS.

4

How old is she? My doc said that once they can roll over, you don’t have to worry about SIDS anymore, because they can move around enough. But, if you are worried, you can pick up a little device at Target or Wal-Mart…it’s got a little bolster on each side of the baby so they can’t roll over. I had my baby in one for maybe the first 6 months (she could roll over by then, and I didn’t want to take any chances.)

5

By coincidence, she decided to start only after the summer got really hot. Little ba at the moment sleeps with only the sheet over the mattress and that’s down nice and tight.

Still, it wasn’t as bad as her first night home from hospital when every noise had me awake and checking her :wink:

6

I don’t know how old she is, but I thought the SIDS threat was more for babies who aren’t capable of rolling around yet. If she’s rolling, there’s not much you can do.

Kid Kalhoun was a tummy sleeper (as were most kids before the SIDS scare).

7

If she can roll over on her own, she is old enough and strong enough to sleep however she wants. Not likely to smash her face into the mattress and suffocate.

My boys were infants when the theory was: put them on their stomach. If they spit up, it will roll out of their mouth. If they spit up while lying on their back, they might choke.

I always liked the joke: “I had 5 theories about child-raising, but no children. Now, I have 5 children and no theories!”

8

I agree with the general sentiment on here. You put a baby to bed on its back and if it rolls over to its stomach on its own, then it’s got enough mobility to roll back over if it’s having trouble breathing. It’s when you put the really little guys to sleep on their stomachs and they can’t roll over to save their own lives that you’ve got trouble on your hands.

9

[QUOTE=Pushkin]
No idea why, she just started and we can’t get her to stop. She rolls over almost as soon as she hits the mattress, as soon as we roll her over onto her back and she even does it in her sleep too. I came to the bedroom after hearing a noise on the baby monitor and found her, bum in the air and cheek on the mattress.

She seems happy enough like that and its impossible (unless we were to stand at her side all night and keep rolling her) to have her on her back. It worries me but my g/f tells me modern mattresses are supposed to be breathable and if she won’t stop and does it automatically, we may as well accept it.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, kids do that “independence” thing from the very beginning. It’s like they haven’t read the baby manuals that say how they’re supposed to react. (Luckily for Dad, he didn’t read them either. Sadly for Mom, she did. :wink: )

My daughter slept on her stomach as well. It’s no big thing, really, we just removed everything from her crib except for a very light blanket (one of those knitted things that’s like corded strings put together). Just like it’s no thing when they stick a bug in their mouth, roll off the couch, etc. It’s just what kids do.

Anyway, at this point, just do what makes you feel more comfortable. The kid won’t remember, you’ll sleep better, and you’ll have time to deal with the next thing. If she starts freaking out and won’t sleep, then let her sleep on her stomach. No need to make the kid unhappy and discontent just because of some advice that is based purely on slight statistical probabilities. After all, the odds of any particular baby dying from SIDS is about 1 in two thousand (.52 deaths for every 1,000 children). An activity that “increases the odds 3 times greater than the general population” raises the odds to 1 death for every ~750 live births… but note, that for many of these incidents, it has never been proved that the activity (eg. sleeping on the stomach or side) actually caused SIDS, just that more babies who died of SIDS were found on their stomachs than babies who weren’t.

However, this is also reflective of the general adult population, who prefers sleeping on their side (73%) to their back (22%), and I can’t really think of any reason why kids should be different (and I’m not going to look it up, either :stuck_out_tongue: :wink: ). So, looking at the data very casually, I can’t really find much correlation between sleeping position and SIDS other than that the kids who die of SIDS exhibit the same sleep posture preferences as the general adult population, and they possibly exhibit the same sleep posture preferences as the children who don’t die of SIDS (another thing I’m not going to look up :wink: ).

10

When my daughter was an infant (fifteen years ago), the conventional wisdom was that babies *should * be put to sleep on their stomachs, so that they wouldn’t choke to death if they spit up while on their backs. Seven years ago, when I put my friend’s daughter down on her stomach, you’d have thought I’d put a pillow over her head and held it there from my friend’s reaction. Ten years from now, they’ll reccommend that babies only be allowed to sleep whilst suspended from the ceiling in a rotating sling.

Let her sleep however she wants to sleep. You’ll be saner, and you’ll both be happier.

11

[QUOTE=DianaG]
Let her sleep however she wants to sleep. You’ll be saner, and you’ll both be happier.
[/QUOTE]
Amen Sister!!

12

Some doctors already question the validity of “tummy sleeping” reducing the risk of SIDS. Ours was/is a tummy sleeper too. I’m with JohnT, the differences in statistical likelihood are so small that it is presumptuous to assume there is a direct correlation. When dealing with such a sensitive/scary issue, people are willing to seize on any idea (however unlikely or unproveable) to try and protect their child just a little bit more.

13

Or, instead of taking advice from people on a message board about the potential for your baby daughter to die from SIDS, you could, oh, I don’t know, ask her doctor??

14

[QUOTE=trublmakr]
Or, instead of taking advice from people on a message board about the potential for your baby daughter to die from SIDS, you could, oh, I don’t know, ask her doctor??
[/QUOTE]

Which is why I’m in MPSIMS and not GQ. She can lift her head and look about while awake and on her belly and she’s able to roll over and sleep with her head to one side, so we know its ok. It was just a worry at first and then one of those things that a parent obsesses about while baby just gets a good night sleep :wink:

15

So, Pushkin, where are the cute baby sleeping-on-her-tummy pictures? :slight_smile:

16

Our little one does this too. She’s been doing it for a couple on months now I’d say and she’s only five months old. Put her down and somehow she’s on her belly. Soon they’ll be crawling, then walking, then running away.

17

[QUOTE=DianaG]
Ten years from now, they’ll reccommend that babies only be allowed to sleep whilst suspended from the ceiling in a rotating sling.

[/QUOTE]

Ten years? Ha!

18

How old is your baby and where are your pictures of her? We need proof y’know! :smiley:

19

[QUOTE=lorene]
Ten years? Ha!
[/QUOTE]

I heart the Amby Motion bed. Lots. It absolutely rocks. Aaaaand…my daughter would sleep on her side or her tummy in it after about 6 months old. :smiley:

Still, she slept through the night in it even before she came home from the hospital! (Her doctors wanted to check her oxygen levels in it, so she slept in it in the NICU for a while.) Whenever she’d start to stir, she’d rock herself right back to sleep. Love the Amby bed…

And I’ll add a “ditto” to those who were told by their doctors that once they can roll themselves over, they can sleep any damn way they want to. After all, they’re SLEEPING! Halleluja!

20

Ours started doing the same thing at about six months. If your baby is old enough to roll over she is old enough to move her head to get air. It’s likely not a problem.

When Madeline was very small I was paranoid about… geez, I can’t even type it. I worried constantly. I guess it’s normal to do that, right?