6 month old and sleeping on her stomach????? Is this ok?

[chlobo]

So our sleep issues just keep going on and on.

First there was the nightwaking (after 2 months of consistently sleeping 11-12 hours/night). Now, my 6 month old will not go to sleep on her back. Last night we thought it was because she had a bad diaper rash and wash uncomfortable. She ended up sleeping in the crook of either mine or my husbands arm, kind of on her side. However, we don't want to encourage that. We really want her to go back to sleeping in her crib (the nightwaking has been going on for almost a month now). Well tonight her butt looks so much better but she still won't sleep on her stomach. However, if you pick her up she almost immediately falls asleep in your arms. Lay her down and she wakes up after a short time and starts crying.

Well on a lark my husband put her down on her stomach and she went right to sleep. My question is is it ok to have her sleep on her stomach? She has turned from her stomach to her back but she doesn't do it on a regular basis. Will she be ok?

Also, has anyone had an experience like this?

[amp]

Once our son was able to flip over on his own, and he would get himself to the tummy position on his own, we quit worrying about it and now we always put him down on his tummy. I can't tell you what to do, but if she can flip on her own, and there's no soft clothing, bedding or toys in the crib, she will probably be fine. Then again, she will soon learn to do it all by herself and you won't have to worry so much about making the decision! Good luck!

[lag555]

I would think it is OK. But I would try not to put blankets near her head.

We had this for a while. My daughter was suddenly not sleeping well, waking up frequently. (Mostly during the day, not at night.) But if we put her on her stomach, she would fall into a deep, comfortable sleep.


Aggie

ETA: I think sleeping on the stomach is not as bad of a habit as teaching her to only fall asleep when you are holding her. I know, one is a safety issue and one is a comfort issue, but that is still my opinion.

[sweetbasil]

We were just at the ped's office (for the second time this week) :(, and our ped had a resident working with her today; the resident asked if Charlie sleeps on his back, and I said that pretty much as soon as he could roll over, he's only slept on his tummy. She says, "We really don't recommend this at all, you know." Um, yeah- but he's 10 1/2 mo. old- there's not a lot we can do at this point. I'm sure it was probably just a little disclaimer on her part, but really....

Charlie hated sleeping on his back from the beginning. We've done our very best to keep the boys on their backs (or in a curved side sleeper) as long as possible, but it gets to a point where they're gonna sleep like they wanna sleep, YKWIM? So when he got a little bigger and would only sleep on his tummy, we watched him closely, and he's been just fine. Especially when they get to the age where they're sitting up (or in our case, trying to walk) on their own, it just doesn't freak me out as much, you know?

[daisymommy]

I'm sure at this sage it's fine. Since she can turn over, and has the neck muscles to keep her head up and out of the mattress to breathe, I would let her sleep however she is most comfortable.

Also, if she doesn have a touch of reflux (as I have wondered for awhile since you first posted), most reflux babies HATE to sleep on their backs since it makes everything come back up. But by sleeping on their tummy (and sometimes their back) this position clamps off the loose muscle in their stomach that allows the spitting up. This keeps everything down where it should be, and baby isn't in pain any more.

[dotgirl]

Wow, our babies are around the same age.

We're also dealing with nightwaking - he used to go from 9-10pm until 7am, but now it's 8pm to 1am, and then 1:30 to 6:30. I'm exhausted!

Anyway, as soon as he could roll over, he started rolling around the crib - we never find him where we last left him. :) He loves to sleep on his stomach, and our ped says that as long as there are no soft toys, blankets, etc, he's fine. And there's not really anything we can do about it anyway - if we put him down on his back, even if he's sound asleep, he'll be on his tummy within the hour anyway.

[chlobo]

I've thought of the reflex angle. However I just can't decide b/c the list of symptoms looks a lot like things all babies might get. She doesn't really spit up so the only other things that *might* indicate reflux are very frequent hiccoughs (2-3 times/day), occassional but regular fussiness while breastfeeding and some wet sounding burps.

That said I'm not sure the pediatrician would take it seriously. I'll ask since I'm seeing him next week (again) for her 6 month visit. They really aught to come with manuals LOL.