Thanks - Albert Lea,MN

I say she will be fine. Once they are rolling proficiently you can't stop it if they prefer their belly. Mine did the same thing. It's not llike you can stand next to her crib all night and keep her from rolling over. If she's like mine, if you prop something next to her to keep her from doing it she'll just get mad and wake up anyways.

Until she can roll from her tummy to her back consistently on her own I wouldn't take a chance. Have you tried the sleep positioners that keep baby from rolling?

My doctor said that if the baby is strong/old enough to roll over on their own, then its ok and you shouldn't worry about going and turning them over all the time.
I think you did the right thing by removing all items from the crib so you know that she's getting enough air.
Good job!

Hi S. - the greatest SIDS danger is between 2 and 4 mos old. because they dont have good neck control and arent able to roll over yet.

Since she can roll over, sit up and has good control of her neck muscles by 7 mos, if she wants to roll over and sleep on her stomach there is going to be little you can do about it. You could spend your whole night checking on her and repositioning her - but then neither of you will be sleeping at night. Propping or back pillows are inappropriate at this age because they move around and they only become an obstacle in bed. In fact, they need to move around the crib. It helps them to develop the core strength that they need for crawling and walking.

I dont mean to contradict your Dr. Brother but these kinds of guidelines change over the years. Remember when babies were SUPPOSED to be on their stomachs? Then it was thought that spitting up was a choking hazard because babies couldnt roll over.

It's perfectly natural as a first-time mom to be constantly worried about your daughter and make sure she has healthiest environment possible. I know you want to be the best mom in the world. Guess What? You ARE the best mom in the world. Trust your instincts. Consider what others do and the prevailing advice of the day and then do what works for your daughter.

All we can do as moms is make the crib as safe a place as possible without sacrificing the quality of sleep the whole family gets. As far as removing toys, your daughter is going to quickly get to the stage where she needs a few little lovies in her crib for company. They will either entertain her in her crib until you wake up or they will help her return to sleep in the middle of the night.

The best rules of thumb are to avoid large loose blankets in bed with her or heavily padded quilts - opt for a small fleece blanky and one piece blanket pjs but avoid overheating.

My baby rarely slept on his back, always on his stomach. The first night or 2, I watched him sleep most of the night just to be sure he was breathing ok. My mom raised 9 stomach sleepers so I trusted her advice to just let him sleep how he's comfortable. He is 3 years old now and we've had no issues at all.

If she is rolling herself over, she is fine. You should still place her on her back, but leave her alone after that. That's what our pediatricians told us. Having a fan in the room (most research is on ceiling fans) helps reduce the risk of SIDS by keeping the air circulating (rather than carbon dioxide getting "trapped" by baby as they breath out)

My son started sleeping on his stomach (by his choice) around 5 months. I would put him on his back to sleep but he'd always end up on his stomach. I was worried too, but his pediatrician told me that as long as he could hold his head up and roll over (which he could) that he would be fine. To put my mind at ease I went out and bought an angel care monitor that has an alarm that goes off when there is no movement or breathing detected for 10 seconds so that did help me feel better.

The no stomach rule is for newborns. My pediatricians always told me that once they can roll themselves over to their stomach, they are physically strong enough that SIDS isn't a major concern anymore. And you can't force them to stay on their backs all night. Age 1 is when SIDS becomes basically unheard of. The most critical time is age 2-4 months, which your baby is clearly past.

It also needs to be said that no one knows what causes SIDS. The no stomach rule came into effect because Asian babies - who always slept on their backs - had a low SIDS rate. Doctors told moms to put babies on backs in the US and the SIDS rate dropped in half, so they concluded that the two have some kind of correlation, which is most likely true. But some babies still died of SIDS while sleeping on their back and millions of babies - including most of today's moms, slept on their stomachs as babies and lived to tell the tale. So clearly it's not the only factor. Some studies suggest that the SIDS rate is lower when babies sleep with a pacifier, but again, it's just a correlation of statistics, not a cause and effect.

The most important thing is that your baby is fine. She is old enough that she is going to sleep how she wants and you can't really do a thing about it. I put my baby in one of those newborn sleeping wedges to keep her on her back and when she was about 5 months old, she chucked it right out of the crib. It was one of the first of many realizations that I can't completely control my child's world.

Good luck,
S.

she should be fine as long as you dont have a crib bumper she could roll into. My daughter was always trying to get on her stomach to sleep from day one. I would find her sleeping on her side at 2 weeks, and she was swaddled till she was 9 months. I'm still not sure how she was doing it. :-) Let her go with what's comfortable.

Both my babies rolled over on their stomachs starting ealry. They love to sleep on their bellies and even now my toddler does! I have 2 kids my 6 month old refuses to sleep on her back! Both my kids are fine and my pedi told me it was ok bc they can roll over! Any questions call your pedi he/she will know whats best!

If your baby at 7 months want to sleep on her stomache I don't think there is much you can do about it. My grandbaby was the same way, her ped dr said so long as you take as many precautions as possible it was fine. If she would develope a cold/allergies I would try and keep her on her back but babies have slept on their stomachs for hundred of years . Don't worry mom I think she will be fine.

She will be fine. Once they start rolling over there isn't much you can do. You are doing the right thing by removing all toys, large blankets and cushions from the crib but mostly if they sleep on their stomach, they turn their heads. My daughter moved around a lot once she rolled over so it's nothing to be alarmed about. Put her to bed still on her back and if she rolls over, I wouldn't be alarmed by it.

I have always heard that by the time they can roll over themselves, it does not matter anymore. If this is how she likes to sleep and she can roll, you can't stop her anyway.

I would encourage you to ask your brother and anyone else who tells you that there is any relationship between SIDS danger and stomach-sleeping to direct you to the scientific evidence proving it. Yes, you are worried about SIDS. Every mom with a baby probably is. The medical community is. So they come up with these sleeping rules (which change over the years) to combat their fear and the frustration of not being able to learn how to prevent it. Dr. William (Bill) Sears has done a great deal of study on SIDS and has good advice on prevention. I will tell you that all of my babies slept better on their tummies and so I let them sleep that way. With my firstborn, in fact, I was told to put him on his tummy or side. Back then the paranoia was over back-sleeping.

Hi S.!
Boy do I empathize with you. My son, now 13 months, started to roll over and sleep on his tummy at age 4 months! It was crazy! I was in a panic over SIDS, but after talking to lots of friends and my pediatrician, they all assured me that it was OK for a baby that can roll over on to their tummy on their own and can hold it's head up. The reasoning that I got was that SIDS is believed to be caused when babies don't get enough air and breathe in their exhaled breath (carbon dioxide). Babies who move around alot and are strong enough to lift their heads, should receive a message to their brain to move/rollover if they are ever in a position where they aren't getting enough oxygen. Since my little guy covered every square inch of his crib during the night I felt a little more assured. To be on the safe side, I never had any toys, bumpers or blankets in the crib with him and even with all the assurance I still got up and checked on him at least 3 times a night to roll him back over on his back. (my own paranoia).

He is now 13 months old and is happy and healthy! And just so you know, he still moves all over his crib at night and still prefers to sleep on his tummy (now on his knees with his little butt up in the air).

I know that there will always be that worry in the back of your mind no matter how many stories you hear but I hope this helps. Every now and then I still get up to watch him sleep and make sure all is well.

Best of luck and congrats on your baby!
K.

Actually, there was a study published recently that correlates SIDS with low levels of seratonin - I'm not sure what your brother's specialty is, but here's the story for your reference: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-02-03-sids03_st_...

Our pediatrician also gave us the same advice with our daughter who liked being on her stomach. He said that as long as she could roll back over, there really wasn't anything we could do to prevent her from being on her stomach if she put herself there.

can she roll over on her own, lift her own head, etc? if she can its likely shes fine. obviously, you can check on her as you normally would. if shes waking at night, this is a good thing; it means that her body is not falling too deep asleep; any nighttime needs should be tended to as quickly and completely as daytime needs. :)

My son is 2 years old now and has always slept on his belly. He would never sleep on his back. I just made sure that everything was out of his bed and would check on him every once in awhile. Once he was able to roll over both ways, I wasn't too worried about it.

Updated

My son is 2 years old now and has always slept on his belly. He would never sleep on his back. I just made sure that everything was out of his bed and would check on him every once in awhile. Once he was able to roll over both ways, I wasn't too worried about it.