Totally frowned upon in the US and not recommended in our country: Letting a baby sleep on its stomach… because of the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Why were we still so happy that our 6 month 21 day old baby slept on his stomach for the first time this night?
First of all, I have to say that the first baby of our twins has been sleeping on his stomach (and in all possible positions) for a long time. Our second baby doesn’t like lying on his stomach or complains after a while when you lay him down like that. It only started belatedly to turn over on its stomach on its own.
If a baby lies on their back for too long, the back of their head flattens. It doesn’t look nice and if you’re unlucky, your children will have it until they’re adults (my mother, for example, has a flat spot like that, but with women it’s usually covered by hair).
That’s actually the main reason why it’s so important to us that our babies lie on their stomachs a lot.
This is not recommended in the US (due to sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS). The babies are then given a helmet that leaves space at the back of the head so that the head can grow to a round form. The helmet needs to be adjusted regularly. We want to spare our babies this and we’re not sure whether you can even get it here in Europe!
Actually, you should only let babies sleep on their stomachs if they do turn over on their own… so we would never have put them on their stomachs as newborns.
What is your opinion on sleeping on your stomach? Are you afraid that your baby will suffocate?
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