Dangers of sleep positions for babies - best practice?

Question

My partner and I have two children, one of which is 9 months old.

He sleeps in his cot and for the first 7-8 months he was wrapped tightly in a blanket and laid down. He is a good sleeper and by the morning he would still be on his back.

However in the last month or so he has begun to get stronger and is now able to turn himself over completely on his front. However this has caused problems at night as he is now eventually able to fight his way out of the blanket to expose his arms and turn himself onto his front. In fact he barley needs any arms to do this.

This we feel prsents potential problems, as we believe that sleeping on their front can be a cause of cot death.

We could take away the wrapped blanket altogether to give him freedom to turn himself over if he goes on his front but then he would take a lot longer to go to sleep and still presents the possibility of cot death.

Anyway, does anyone have any 'best practice' about how babies should sleep/cot death/tips etc.. etc.

I thought i would add that he was born premature and is effectivley two months behind in development terms to other children who were not born prematurely..dont know if this would make any difference at all.

Thanks for your replies so far....can anyone provide any facts and figures on SIDS/cot death...age/death ratio etc...or any web sites links to stats?

By the way, dont worry we are not panicking over it, more just being prepared and knowledge is power!

Answer 1

First off positioning has nothing to do with why a baby suddenly stops breathing. Suffocation is not SIDS so a baby that dies on its tummy because it was face down in the crib or because of a blanket is not SIDS it is suffocation, not the same thing. They have changed the way they rule a SIDS death and suffocation is suffocation it is no longer considered SIDS. My daughter was on her back and still died of SIDS. I joined a SIDS group shortly after she died and guess what....most of the mothers in my group have also stated that their babies were on their backs, sides, in strollers, swings, etc. There were only a couple on their tummy. If a baby dies on its tummy and it was not suffocation then yeah it was probably SIDS but that baby would have died in any position just like my daughter did. A sudden cesation of breathing has nothing to do with positioning or there would be no babies at all dying other than in just one position. People are so hell bent on this back to sleep stuff that they follow it so cautiously along with everything else they have come up with and then like me their baby dies and they are left saying but I did everything I was supposed to. It doesn't matter what you do. Whatever is causing these babies to stop breathing is beyond our control as parents. It is something you have no control over and if it's going to happen it's going to happen. Your daughter should just enjoy her baby, as should you, and not let this overwhelm you. I've had two more and both of them slept in whatever position they wanted, usually on their stomach, and they are both fine. SIDS has been known to happen up until 1 year but the risk decreases after six months. I know three people in my SIDS group that lost their babies at 10 month and two at 12 months. There are also 2 that lost their baby to SIDS while their baby was awake so it doesn't even have to happen while they are sleeping

Answer 2

It has always said that back is best. But if your child turns over to their stomach in the middle of the night, he should be fine as long as you don't have excess items in the area they sleep like pillows, toys, extra blankets and what not. It should be him, the matress and a single blanket or the one that comes with the bedding that is being used. You could try placing something on his sides to keep him from turning over at night.

He could be at that stage where he is learning to turn over (im not sure of his age now) and roll and you shouldn't limit that. You can let him do his thing and place monitors in his room and check on him every once in a while through out the night.

Answer 3

A 7 month old baby poses greater threat for having his arms pinned back then having turned himself over in his crib. Do not wrap your baby so snuggly before sleep, if he does manage to get himself caught on his stomach and his arms are not free to flip himself back over then you've got yourself a cot death. Once a baby is old enough to lift his on head the chances of cot death drop significantly (generally speaking after the 4th month). If you're worried about him getting tangled in blankets, try using a sleeping bag thing http://www.sleephuggers.com/ I very strongly advice against having a 7 month old baby swaddled. Maybe speak to your pediatrician.

Answer 4

At 9 months old....unwrap the poor kid! SIDS is a relatively minor threat to children and its peak ages are between 2- 4 months old....ask your pediatrician and they will tell you., as soon as your baby can flip themselves over of their own will...any sleep position is fine...you may put him to sleep on his back and if he wants to , he'll flip to the front....dont stress about this...theres nothing you can do short of stapling his blankets to the cot.

Answer 5

if he's strong enough to turn over then he should be fine.
there isn't anything you can do about it the baby is going to turn over and the chances of SIDS is pretty low at 9 months

Answer 6

my baby is now 6 months old we have been letting her sleep how she is comfortable and that is on her tummy, i know they say back to sleep but i have 5 kids and have never had a problem...i think as long as they can roll over on their own they should be ok...but all in all its what you feel comfortable doing

Answer 7

if they flip over, let them. The changes of hiim actaully having SIDS is very low

Answer 8

The current recommendation is "back to sleep" until they are old enough to flip themselves over. Then, if they flip over, that is ok too.