Rolling Over and Tummy Sleeping

Did your baby just figure out how to roll over, and now they insist on sleeping only on their belly? Very common. In fact, that's the only way Brianna sleeps now. It was the scariest thing to me at first. With the SIDS campaign scaring the living you know what out of me, I didn't know what to do. I spent many sleepless nights watching the monitor. She just kept rolling over. And I kept running into her room to flip her back. I was up all night! Once she discovered this wonderful new position, she refused to sleep on her back. And I was faced with, yet another dilemma...

Here are the facts according tot he SIDS campaign: "Parents and caregivers should continue to place babies on their backs to sleep throughout the first year of life". "However, once infants are more developmentally advanced, they often roll over on their own. In this situation, when infants roll over on their own, there is no evidence that they need to be repositioned."

Brianna started rolling in her sleep, shortly after I stopped using the Swaddle Sack. By that time she knew how to roll over in both directions, so I knew she was safe. But being the nurse that I am I needed to further investigate this, so that I had the correct facts. I called my pediatrician and emailed the American Academy of Pediatrics. My pediatrician stated that when a baby is developmentally capable of rolling over in both directions, tummy to back as well as back to tummy. It is ok to leave them sleeping on their belly. Because at this point they are able to get themselves out of that position if need be.

This is the response I got from the AAP (Told you I did alot of research):

Thank you for contacting the American Academy of Pediatrics,

The AAP is a professional membership organization of 60,000 pediatricians, pediatric medical sub-specialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety, and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.  Our members are the pediatricians working in communities and hospitals around the world.

The Academy does not have practicing pediatricians on staff to respond to parental requests regarding individual medical conditions, or questions about the Academy's policies and statements. Your best resource for this information is your pediatrician.  

With that said, a common question among caregivers/teachers and parents/guardians is whether they should return the infant to the supine position if they roll onto their side or their tummies. Infants up to twelve months of age should be placed wholly supine for sleep every time. In fact, all children should be placed (or encouraged to lie down) on their backs to sleep. When infants are developmentally capable of rolling comfortably from their backs to their fronts and back again, there is no evidence to suggest that they should be re-positioned into the supine position.

We recommend you follow up with your pediatrician regarding specific questions related to your child. 

Best regards,

Have a wonderful day!

Jill Zubrod-Hernandez, MPH

Program Manager

Healthy Child Care America

Division of Developmental Pediatrics and Preventive Services

847-434-4016

Ok, great now I have my facts and I can finally sleep easy. Well it wasn't easy at first, I still watched the monitor like a mad women to see if she's breathing. I eventually saw that she was safe. She was rolling as she needed to. She didn't get stuck anywhere. Her nose was in clear view and not obstructed by anything...she was fine! 

SIDS

Sudden infant death syndrome. Something no parent wants to even think about. But as a nurse there is no way I could not talk about this. I am a huge advocator of the SIDS campaign. I follow the regulations of safe sleep to the tee and preach it to everyone I know. Some people don't take it as serious and think "My mom did that for years with me and nothing happened". Well guess what? Our moms were lucky nothing happened. They didn't have all the information as we do now. There weren't enough studies done on this issue, if any at all. We now know that certain factors increase the risk of SIDS, so why not just follow the recommendations. Why use the cute crib bumpers, if they pose a risk? No baby has ever died from bumping their head on the crib, but they have from suffocation from crib bumpers.See for yourself Here. What's worse a bump on the head or your baby suffocating?...come on! Some states have already banned the sale of crib bumpers. It won't be long before all states do the same. Just skip them. If you are worried about your baby's legs getting stuck. Put a Wearable Blanket on like we did with Brianna.

Same goes with toys.Why add toys or possible dangers into your babies cribs. They don't need those things to sleep. Our crib is as bare as can be. Yes Brianna looks hideous in it. She's so tiny in this huge open space but she feels snug and safe in her wearable blanket. Here are some other factors that have been linked to a baby's increased risk of  SIDS, provided by PubMed Health:

• Sleeping on the stomach
• Being around cigarette smoke while in the womb or after being born
• Sleeping in the same bed as their parents (co-sleeping)
• Soft bedding in the crib
• Multiple birth babies (being a twin, triplet, etc.)
• Premature birth
• Having a brother or sister who had SIDS
• Mothers who smoke or use illegal drugs
• Being born to a teen mother
• Short time period between pregnancies
• Late or no prenatal care
• Living in poverty situations

Back to sleep
The SIDS or "Back to Sleep" campaign is a national campaign launched in 1994 to help promote positioning babies on their backs to sleep, to reduce sudden infant death syndrome. Studies have shown that that since the campaign the SIDS rate has dropped from 75% to less than 25%. Always place your baby on their back to sleep.



Bare Crib
No toys, blankets, pillows, or anything besides a tight fitting sheet. Yes that means no crib bumpers either. Just a bare crib. This is what it should look like according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). If you are worried about how your nursery will look because you still want it to look cute. A company called "Skip Hop" makes bumper free bedding take a look HERE

Other ways to reduce SIDS provided by NIH

Cry it Out

Let me just get to the point, you should never let your baby cry it out! Watching or hearing your baby cry and you do nothing, that's crazy!!! Ok now I have that off my chest so we can go into detail into this topic.

Crying it out also known as  Ferberizing, named after Dr. Richard Ferber is a method used to "help" a baby fall asleep. He introduced this method in his book back in 1985. Basically you put your baby down into their crib and let them cry their little heads off until they eventually fall asleep. He says to check on the baby but only at intervals, something he calls "progressive waiting". Wait let me get this straight, you want me to let my baby cry for 5, 10, 15 minutes and do nothing??? Not my idea of helping my baby go to sleep. Sure my baby will eventually fall asleep...from pure exhaustion!

Here's the real deal, crying it out leaves emotional scars. Studies have shown that frequently leaving your baby to cry can cause long term problems such as anxiety, relationship problems and damage to intellect. According to the Psychologist Darcia Narvaez, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Collaborative for Ethical Education at the University of Notre Dame "letting babies get distressed is a practice that can damage children and their relational capacities in many ways for the long term. We know now that leaving babies to cry is a good way to make a less intelligent, less healthy but more anxious, uncooperative and alienated persons who can pass the same or worse traits on to the next generation."

There are true dangers to to this horrible method. Our baby's only way of communication is through crying. Whether they are hungry, tired, wet, or scared, they will cry. Now if they are communicating that need to you, and you are not responding, how can they possible trust you? How can a baby possibly trust someone that leaves them alone and afraid every time they have to go to bed. Ever notice your baby's cry gets stronger and louder? That's because when they cry, and you don't respond, they go from anxiety to sheer panic...now you really want to leave your baby like that?

Did we forget Erikson's FIRST stage of development, Trust vs Mistrust? I emphasize first because remember his theory, each stage builds on the successful completion of the previous stage. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future. So If a baby doesn't trust his mommy then why would he be expected to trust anyone else in the future.

Crash course on Erikson's first stage provided by wikipedia :"The first stage of Erik Erikson's theory centers around the infant's basic needs being met by the parents and this interaction leading to trust or mistrust. Trust as defined by Erikson is an essential truthfulness of others as well as a fundamental sense of one's own trustworthiness.The infant depends on the parents, especially the mother, for food, sustenance, and comfort. The child's relative understanding of world and society come from the parents and their interaction with the child. If the parents expose the child to warmth, regularity, and dependable affection, the infant's view of the world will be one of trust. Should the parents fail to provide a secure environment and to meet the child's basic needs a sense of mistrust will result. Development of mistrust can lead to feelings of frustration, suspicion, withdrawal, and a lack of confidence." Need I say more?

Now I'm not saying you have to drop your dishes, and run across the room because your baby is crying. I'm saying purposefully letting your baby cry can be damaging. As I mentioned many studies have been conducted showing these negative traits in children who were left to cry. There are hundreds of publications on this topic. Here are just a few links to the articles from trusted sources.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201112/dangers-crying-it-out

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/fussy-baby/science-says-excessive-crying-could-be-harmful

http://drbenkim.com/articles-attachment-parenting.html

Baby Won't Sleep in the Bassinet

               

Well if I told you I put 
Brianna down in her bassinet for the first time and she smiled with joy, I'd be lying. The fact is that we really struggled with this when we brought her home from the hospital. She would sleep in her swing, newborn napper, bouncer, but not her bassinet. We had a "Arms Reach Co-Sleeper" so it was like a mini crib. I was determined to figure out why she slept so soundly in everything else but the Co-Sleeper. It didn't take long to figure out, however it took some investigative work. Don't you wish babies could talk?

I realized all of these swings and nappers had something in common. They were all positioned in such a manner, that recreated a snug and womb-like environment, something all babies love. So I picked apart all the differences between the nappers and her Co-Sleeper bassinet, and created that same snug feeling.

First huge difference, they were all elevated. Of course! My baby never slept flat in my belly. It makes total sense that she freaks out when I lay her flat. My Pediatrician recommended I fold or roll a towel under the mattress of the Co- Sleeper. And Ta Da!! She didn't cry when I put her down!!! Just a small incline will do, and if your baby is already in her crib, you can buy a Crib Wedge. With the incline, she actually gave the co-sleeper a chance. She stayed in it for a few minutes at first, then eventually longer and longer. 

I also gave my baby some "practice time" in the the Co-Sleeper. When she was happy and alert, like after a good feeding. I just let her explore in there. This gave her a chance to get use to the Co-Sleeper, and feel safe in something other than my arms. I did this a few times a day, for several days, until one day she just got tired, and even fell asleep in it all by herself. But we weren't done yet. I knew I had to keep working on this. 

The second big difference I noticed in her nappers, is that they were all snug. They had padding or newborn positioners, to make the baby feel just as she did in my belly. Ok got it, HALO SleepSack. I remembered I registered for one and haven't used it. I took it right out and wrapped her all up. Now we're getting somewhere I thought. I put her down, she's wasn't crying and she actually fell asleep!

Now for the hardest part, she wasn't staying asleep. I watched her night after night. She rolling her head around side to side.What the heck was she doing? One night she stretched her neck out like a turtle and dug her face into the top of the co-sleeper and fell asleep. The top of the Co-Sleeper was soft. So she actually used that part of the bed to soothe herself back to sleep. Ok great, now I have to worry about her suffocating because the only way she will fall back asleep is by digging her face into something soft. This was a tough one! Thanks to the SIDS campaign we all know, no toys, blankets, or anything for that matter, in the crib. What the heck was I suppose to do??? I watched how she napped during the day and noticed the same thing. She liked to fall asleep by putting her face into something soft. Then it dawned on me, let me change the sheets. The ones I had were plain, kind of stiff, cotton sheets. She liked things that were soft or plush. So this is what I found Carters Velour Sheets. They are as thin as cotton, no unsafe plush, no padding whatsoever. Its just a very, very, thin velour. And guess what? It worked! Brianna felt that nice soft texture up against her face, she moved her head side to side a few times and was able to soothe herself to sleep. I'm not surprised, that's probably what she was doing for 9 months in my belly. Believe it or not things are pretty comfy in there. She wasn't sleeping through the night just yet though. There were many other factors, like adjusting nap times, and feeding schedules. But at this point she was capable of putting herself to sleep independently, as well as soothe herself back to sleep. That's huge!


So I basically re-created a womb like environment to comfort my baby, and help her sleep. Kind of makes sense right? It was something so simple but not so obvious without doing some work. She no longer cries or whines when I lay her down. Once we figured out how to get her to like her Co-Sleeper, we started working on how to get her to sleep through the night, which you can read more about here.