S is for Sleep, T is for Tummy

It's confession time. My daughter, Kaitlyn, sleeps on her tummy. She has since the day she came home from the hospital and started sleeping on my chest, except for a month of practically sleepless nights when we tried to force back sleeping through swaddling and other methods. So there it is. Personally, I think it's a not-so-dirty little secret that more than a few moms have but no one will admit to it because the Back to Sleep campaign that started in 1994 has everyone scared out of their wits.

Yes, it is true that since the Back to Sleep campaign started, the incidents of SIDS deaths has decreased by half. However, the campaign was launched with other advice such as "Don't smoke around your children," and "Breast is best." These are two important statements that have a huge impact on infant health but they are rarely associated with SIDS discussions.

A 1992 study found that only 13% of U.S. infants were put to sleep on their back; generations before us were instructed to make babies sleep on their tummies. One popular thought was that the baby could choke if they spit up. I like to think that theory went out the window the first time someone did some actual thinking about it.

Another popular baby care idea was to only formula feed, but we have happily moved back to an emphasis on breastfeeding, coincidentally encouraged around the same time as back sleeping. I'm sure that the next generation will have a whole new set of ideas about the way babies should be raised. The way I see it, we wouldn't have gotten this far as a species if babies were only meant to sleep on their backs.

Am I nervous about her sleeping on her tummy? Absolutely. Especially since we moved her into her crib in the other room. Those first few weeks I probably woke up every 20 minutes to check on her. Still, at five months old, if I wake up and don't hear a sound from her within a few minutes, I'll find an excuse to get out of bed and take a look at her. So it's not without sacrifice. But a 2004 study cited in Medical News Today, although they continue to recommend back sleeping at the end, showed that babies who have experience sleeping on their tummies are better able to provide themselves with fresh air because they turn their heads completely.

I have also noticed that she sleeps more soundly, and for longer, than most other babies I know. She learned how to find and put her soother in far sooner than other babies were even aware of objects around them. And she's a very happy baby who knows that when I put her on her tummy with her soother, it's time for a nap. All of this is supported by numerous studies done since 1998 that show babies who sleep on their tummies have increased motor skills, social skills and cognitive ability development.

In researching this post, I saw that a lot of people recommended a tight swaddle for babies in order to get them to sleep on their backs. Really? That doesn't seem a little unnatural to you? Kaitlyn was swaddled for the first month when we were really desperate to try to get her settled but babies need to move in order to develop skills. It's perfectly normal for them to wake up a few times a night and practice, which is much harder from the back.

Now I'm not saying all babies should go to sleep on their tummies, I'm just saying that mine does and we shouldn't be afraid to admit it. It seems to be a preferred position for many babies and there is a lot of research supporting the healthy development of babies who sleep in the prone position. There are a lot of factors that go into SIDS and a mom who has a healthy, normal weight baby who is breast-fed and lives in a non-smoking environment (hopefully that's most of them!) should not be terrified to let their baby sleep in whatever their preferred position is.