In 1992, the American Association of Pediatricians issued their policies
regarding infant sleeping positions. Their studies prompted a national campaign
called “Back to Sleep” in 1994. Since that time, parents have been counseled to
have their infants sleep on their backs in order to reduce the risk of SIDS.
The campaign seems to have worked. Four years after the campaign began,
SIDS-related deaths dropped by nearly half (from 4,660 to about 2,800). That’s
a great advance, but with infant deaths still totaling over the 2,000 mark,
there is still room for improvement.
Despite this campaign, many parents still allow their infants to sleep on
their stomach, and with understandable reasons. Betty McEntire, PhD and
Executive Director of the American SIDS Institute, often faces the question of
why it is not good to have an infant sleep on its stomach. According to
McEntire, babies who sleep on their stomach have a tendency to cry less, require
more stimuli to wake, and wake less. However, babies who sleep on their
stomachs are actually at 12.9 the risk of SIDS compared to babies who sleep on
their backs, explains McEntire. Stomach-sleeping babies are at an increased
risk of apneas (pauses in breathing), rebreathing (breathing in exhaled breath,
upping the carbon dioxide content of the blood), and overheating—all of which
are considered factors leading to SIDS. Interestingly, stomach- and
back-sleeping babies have the same risk of spitting up and/or choking.
But what about flat spots for back-sleeping babies? According to the
National Institutes of Health, flat spots on a baby’s skull will generally
disappear once they begin sitting up. Additionally, while you shouldn’t allow
your baby to sleep on their stomach, you can allow “tummy-time”—time when the
baby can be placed or allowed to stay on its stomach (such time should be given
when the child is awake and monitored). To further prevent flat spots,
alternate the position you place your child in to sleep. Alternate the sides of
the head that a child sleeps on.
Side sleeping is another sleeping position that should be avoided with
infants. The risk of the baby rolling to its stomach makes such a position
dangerous.