No, it’s not at all normal to worry constantly. You’re going to screw up your kids if you keep doing that.
(Parenthood also messes with your sarcasm meter, so in case it isn’t obvious, I’M TOTALLY JOKING!!!)
At the risk of being pitted, I need to say that a lot of the advice in this thread is complete and total bullshit.
SIDS is still the number one cause of death in children under one. Think about that for a moment. Why would you want to take the chance of your baby dying? The cause of SIDS, or cribdeath, is still not completely understood, but it is a fact that back-sleeping reduces the risk. And healthy babies absolutely do not choke if they spit up or cough while on their back- there is no evidence that that even happens.
If you still feel that the benefit might outweigh the risk, I would encourage you to speak to your baby’s doctor.
OK, so what do you suggest? Those baby wedges are now considered bad, because they can move around and suffocate the baby. Rolled up towels or blankets, likewise. The only thing in the crib, we’re told, should be a well-fitted sheet and the baby. Nothing else, ever. So how do you propose stopping an older baby - one who can roll herself over at will - from rolling over?
I am a great supporter of the Back to Sleep campaign. It’s done great things, and the SIDS rate has dropped immensely since parents began putting their *newborns *on their backs. But I think (and my child’s multiple doctors agree) that once they can turn themselves over, the biggest danger is past.
There’s a huge neurological and physiological difference between a 6 day old and a 6 month old. There’s no reason to believe the two are equivalent. I’d be interested in seeing a better breakdown of statistics than “under a year.”
Yes, I agree that each parent should talk to their child’s own doctor. The OP’s baby may have some condition we aren’t aware of that would make her situation unique. (CP, GURD, Apnea, etc.) But for a normally healthy baby, I don’t see why all my doctors are giving “bullshit” advice.
The OP didn’t say how old his baby was, unless I missed it.
Of course, you should follow your own baby’s doctors’ advice, that’s my point.
As to options, if a newborn is placed on his/her back from the beginning, they tend to adopt that sleeping position and it doesn’t become an issue until the danger period has passed, in my experience. It’s been 7 years since I’ve had a baby, so I’m not up on the latest gadgets to help with that.
And I should add, that it’s not really the advice given that bothers me- I’m aware that a significant number of people feel that way. It’s more that the OP takes a subject that could seriously impact the safety of his baby girl, and instead of seeking real medical advice, asks a bunch of strangers on a message board… to me that’s a real :smack:
From the OP:
So the kid is old enough to roll herself. This gives an approximate age for the child. (Three months, rare; four months frequent; five months, typical.) The peak incidence for SIDS appears to be between two and four months, so possibly just before the baby develops the capacity to roll over.
Fine.
All I’m saying is, why not ask the doctor? Why supercede that knowledgable opinion with that of a message board when it comes to a serious issue such as this? I know it’s The Straight Dope and all, but then again, I’m sure that she *has * a doctor, and they’re not very hard to get a hold of, so why not ask him? That seems to be the consensus among the moderators when it comes to other medical questions- what’s different about this one? Because it’s not in GQ?
Since someone is trying to drag this into GQ/GD, let me clarify.
Wee ba is now 6 1/2 months old, she’s trying her hardest to wriggle, push, drag herself around awake or asleep. She’s in the best of health and has been since day one save a small dose of thrush. My girlfriend has had two babies before and remembers so many differing offers of advice over the years to prevent all sorts happening to babies. I’m surprised I survived myself 
Sadly my girlfriend doesn’t like photos being saved on my computer or photobucket, so I’ll just have to let you know our baby’s adorable and my girlfriend’s complaining of a melted head from my ceaseless praise of our offspring 
Does your monitor have a motion sensor?
I behaved exactly as your baby. It’s been 38 years since and, unless being an asocial nerd can now be blamed on belly-sleeping, I’m just fine.
If she grows up nerdish (which would be something that might make Daddy proud) it’ll be more likely to do with her parents love of Star Trek than belly-sleeping 
And I’ve seen so many monitors with far too many options, breathing/motion sensors, two way communications (for those too lazy to go and check on their baby…) etc etc. A simple one way yelp from baby to parent is enough thanks!
SIDS is commonest between one and five months, and reaches its absolute peak about 2-1/2 months of age. SIDS becomes much less common after 6 months.
The official definition of SIDS is “the death of a child below the age of 1 year, in whom a complete autopsy, review of the history, and scene investigation reveals no cause of death”. But I almost never see SIDS beyond six months. When I hear that there is a dead infant for autopsy at 7 months of age, I immediately start to worry. Pneumonia from unsuspected dangerous virulent organism? Child abuse? On the other hand, if I hear (as I do much more commonly) that a dead infant for autopsy is 2.5 months old, I think “SIDS” by reflex.
No one knows what causes SIDS, and many ingenious theories have bitten the dust in the past. However, everyone agrees that it is two things combined: a vulnerable child, and an environmental influence. The vulnerability is clearly age-related, also gender-related (it can happen to girls, but boys are more susceptible), also history-related (twins and premies are more susceptible than full-term singlets), and also race-related (AfricanAmericans have a higher rate than Caucasoids, and American Indians a higher rate than African Americans).
Among the environmental influences are sleeping face down (I’ve never had a face-up SIDS), being wrapped up too warmly, winter months, and having parents especially the mother who smokes. Pushkin, do you smoke?
The danger of crib death is much decreased by 6 months. I have never had kids, so can’t tell you what to do. But if I knew what I know now about infant death, and had a wriggling 6-1/2 month old who was barely sleeping under a blanket in the summer months, and I didn’t smoke, then I think I’d let her sleep wherever the heck she liked.
Can I reiterate: and I didn’t smoke.
No one else has mentioned the association between smoking parents and SIDS in this thread. Back to Sleep is essential and wonderful. But it’s also very important whether the mother smokes. (In the New Zealand study, with its thousands of people enrolled, the father’s smoking did not reach statistical significance, although it seemed likely it would have if millions of people had been enrolled. Nowadays the CDC is studying whether fathers and babysitters who smoke also make an impact on the SIDS rate.)
By the way, I am going to the CDC in September to get a week of SIDS training, so bring this thread back up in the last ten days in Sept if you want to know what they said.
No, neither of us smokes (as an aside my Mum actually gave up smoking in the 70s when she learned she was pregnant with me) Aside from kids occasionally running riot in the back of the disused house next door, which they seem to have given up on, there’s nothing really in my baby’s environment to cause harm.
Ironically, given you mentioned being wrapped up too warmly, my girlfriend’s other daughter jokingly warned me to watch her little sister being wrapped up too much at night, that apparantly being advice that was dished out at one stage in the 80s and then quickly forgotten.
Well, here you’ve touched on a whole 'nother Great Debate, which is the deification of doctors on this board and IRL. I’ve been thinking of tackling that one for a while now, but don’t have a thick enough skin for it quite yet.
The point, as I took it, of DianaG’s story of recomendations to put babies on their tummies to “prevent choking on spit-up”, was that recomendations change, reasons change, and even doctors don’t always have all the information and that sooner or later, you have to throw your hands up and say you did the best you could with the information you had at the time. Ask a doctor about cholera in Victorian England, and you’d get an earful about Miasma and Vapors. Ask a dozen street vendors, and they might scratch their heads and say, “y’know, that water pump over on Broad Street seems like bad news…everyone who works there gets sick.” John Snow finally listened to them, and modern epidemiology was born.
You got in your say about checking with a doctor in the 12th reply. I’m not sure why you feel the need to keep repeating it and denigrating the other replies as “bullshit”. I considered yours good advice and covered. But I also see no harm in getting parenting advice from other parents, weighing it with your own doctor’s advice and the practicality of the situation, as well as your own intuition and intimate knowledge of your own baby and what works for the two of you.
I know, for example, that my daughter’s pediatrician is not a forensic pathologist. **gabriela **is. My daughter’s pediatrician is not attending a week long conference on SIDS in September. **gabriela **is. My daughter’s pediatrician hasn’t studied the sleep positioning habits of adults and compared them to infants. **JohnT **has. My daughter’s pediatrician has not had 3 dozen or more children over a span of 30 years. Dopers have. We have valuable, real-world practical advice that can certainly be considered and discussed *with *our chosen health care professionals to help us take responsibility for our own medical decisions.
Why yes, I have asked my doctor “cite?” on occasion. Just because she wears that pretty white coat doesn’t mean she’s infallible. I am ultimately responsible for my own health - she’s merely one well educated source of information for me.
Hmm. I guess I sort of started to take on that Debate after all. Ah well. Let the flames fall where they may.