How does your baby REALLY sleep?

Question

My son was born with GERD and the Pediatrician told me only on the back. Well when we did that he would aspirate stomach acid. We ended up in the ER at Texas Children's... WHERE the pediatric gastrologist told us that our Pediatrician HAS to legally tell us back only. He told us that yes it is "safer" but that a GERD baby or reflux baby are best at a 45 degree angle and on their stomach.

Well we just had baby 2 a girl and she has some reflux but nothing big. I just can't bring myself to put her on her back out of the fear of walking in and finding her aspirating on her stomach contents. There was no sound and no warning when it happened with my son. So I want to know...

How does your baby REALLY sleep. Not what we tell other parents but the truth! I never tell anyone mine sleep on their tummy's because parents blow up at me and start spouting SIDS statistics (which they still have not real cause for). I don't smoke, drink or have anything loose in bed with her or him.

Answer 1

I put him to bed on his back, but he rolls halfway & sleeps on his side.

He is 6months old.

Answer 2

My baby sleeps on stomach or side mostly stomach and has been since she came home. If I put her on her back she keeps waking up

Answer 3

My son, up until recently, has always slept on his side. He now favours his tummy, which i must say im not keen on and i do try to roll him back on his side but i cant watch him every minute. He has never slept on his back because he refused to. He is now over 6 months old.

Answer 4

When I had my 1st (now 2 years old) they would always put him on his side in the bassinette in the hospital.  I had all the SIDs info. but I suppose like an idiot, without asking questions, I just followed suit and always put him on his side.  We never had any problems.

My second always slept on his back (even in the hospital), also without any problem.

I imagine you would get a lot of guff for putting your baby down on his belly, but you have to do what's best for your child.  Putting in a position where he could choke in his sleep was clearly not an option.  I know I would have the same fears with a second child after going through that with your first.  You shouldn't have to explain yourself to anyone.

People give us grief all the time because we kept our babies cribs in our bedroom until they are a year old (the 9 mos old is still with us now)!  We just want to be right there should something be wrong ~ silly us being caring parents!

Congratulations on your new bundle of joy!

Answer 5

with my first son i was obsessed with sids talk and he only slept on his back. with my second son he refused to lay on his back so for the first few weeks he slept in his swing or bouncy seat and when he was a few weeks old i slept him on his stomach as soon as he could move his head side to side. with my daughter she wouldnt sleep on her back either so for her first 2 weeks i slept holding her and the started putting her to sleep on her stomach. she is 5months old now and still sleeps on her stomach. i think it helps them sleep better. there is no law saying babys have to sleep on their back. its just recommended. and it does not say that there is more instances of sids from sleeping on their stomach it just said that more babies that died of sids were sleeping on their stomach than their back.  

Answer 6

My daughter also has reflux. My answer is Any way she will sleep at the time. I only let her sleep in her tummy 1 if she is with me or 2 if she is in her bassinet that has the babysenseV in it, and will send off an alarm if she stops breathing. I had a nephew die from SIDS at 6 mo while napping with his parents in their bed. I have been paranoid about my baby. but she is such a light sleeper and it's hard to make her happy when sleeping. I have put her on her back swaddled, in a boppy covered with a tight blanket, on a snuggle nest with a positioner. she sleeps on her side in those places. i have had her in a swing, in a bouncy w/ vibration, on my chest in a chair, you name it we have tried it. Whatever makes her happy, while being as safe as humanly possible. if she is on the poppy it's only when she is literaly right next to me or when I am awake and can check on her every few minutes. in the bouncy I dont worry too much because she is upright and propped up and her reflux is better. on her tummy, only with the babysense or on my chest on her side we only put her on her left to ease reflux.

sorry that was a bunch of muddled answer, but it sums it up. We will try anything, reasonable to get our daughter who is 1 mo adjusted age, 3 mo actual age to sleep more than 30 minutes.  

Answer 7

What Lola's mommy said!  My dd is 7 months now and she usually sleeps on her side ( she doesn't like stomach yet ) but I still put her down on her back.  If she has a tendency to throw up I may suggest side until she can roll back and forth on her own, good luck.

Answer 8

on her tummy. she has done since 4mos. she is now 12mos. seeing that she was rolling back and forth by 3mos, there was absolutely nothing i could do to make h7am, like you we dont drink, smoke, use drugs, i make sure our sheets are tightly fitting etc. im also a very light er sleep on her back. i have the tommee tippee suresound monitors which detects he breathing and movement, if this stops, an alarm sounds, having it really settled my mind.

i also take her into our bed, she sleeps from about 8 till 5am. i take her in with us till she wakes around 7. like you we dont drink, smoke, have tight bedding etc. im also a very light sleeper so if she jerks or moves i wake up so i know she is safe.

Answer 9

my 11 week old son rolls onto his left side when i put him down and i let him, he sleeps 9 hours a night that way, amy other way he wakes every 2 hours

Answer 10

I put my 4 month old on her back. My son who is now 4 slept on his side because we lived with my Mum at the time and she helped me a lot and suggested it. Once I started him on his side, that was the only way he was comfy.  

Answer 11

my son slept on his back until he was 6 months old. now he sleeps on his stomach with his butt in the air. if we roll him over he just flops right back.

Answer 12

My 6 month old sleeps on his stomach.  He has since he was just a couple of weeks old.  I know what you're going through with the guilt and the other mommys pushing their beliefs on you, but honestly, SIDS has not been proven to ONLY be from babies sleeping on their tummy.  There are other contributing factors like smoking in the home, etc.  My son sleeps so much better and more restful on his tummy.  Good luck, and do what you know is best for you and your child.  don't listen to the other people who don't know what it's like to live with a baby with GERD or reflux...

Answer 13

My girl does sleep on her back, but she's old enough now to turn over and chooses not to.  She use to roll over but now she just sleeps on her back.  I do believe in putting your baby on their back, of course there are special cases where side is better (I'd avoid stomach altogether)  but I find the SIDS statistics hard to ignore.  More than a 50% decline in SIDS since the Back to Sleep Campaign began seems evidence enough that something about it must be right.  Good luck either way!!

Answer 14

My mother had six kids and we all were tummy sleepers.  Not one of us died.  Of course, she also kept our bassinets and/or cribs right next to her bed until we were old enough to start rolling over on our own.  She said that way, she could hear us breathing in the night and be alerted if something was wrong.

I've had three kids so far (they are 4, 2, and 17 months) and I did the same for each of them, except I started them off on their side for the first couple of weeks.  I found that they started sleeping through the night fairly early on (compared to my friends' kids, who were all put on their backs) and were less fussy when they were asleep.  I'm now 26 weeks pregnant with #4 and plan on doing the same.  I wake up frequently in the night anyhow, so having them right next to me (similar to co-sleeping, but in their own bed) is an easy way to check on them.

Answer 15

Honestly, my daughter has slept on her tummy since she was about 3 months old. We had a nurse come into our home the day after I left the hospital to check my blood pressure and she said "i'm not supposed to tell you this, but some baby's just sleep better on their tummies. imagine how you'd fell if you could only fall asleep on your tummy, and no one would let you." So in the beginning, she usually slept in her swing cause that's the only way she'd sleep. And then at around 3 months we started putting her on her tummy cause she was able to turn her head side to side. Yeah I always get the super mom's shouting at me about SIDS and stuff-and YES i love my daughter, but when I was a baby, the directions were to put babies on their tummy's only. So i figured if it'd help her sleep better, then why not. she would literally wake up every 5 mins on her back. And no, it wasn't just so I could sleep better. I kept stuffed animals, pillows, blankets out of her crib and pulled her sheet tight. Plus I checked on her literally every 10 mins.