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Being a mother, you probably realized from your experience that a happy baby is a well-slept baby. The position in which the baby sleeps is also as important as the requirement of sleep for a new born baby.
Taking care of the sleeping position, especially during the initial months after the birth of your baby, is of the utmost important.
It is important to use a safe sleeping pattern for your baby because of the risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy. It occurs mainly as the result of fatal sleeping accidents. SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) is the sudden death of healthy babies under one year of age without any reason. This death, mainly occurs usually when they are sleeping.
All these factors indicate the significance of sleeping positions.
The answer is ‘NO’. Babies who sleep on their side found to have an increased risk of SIDS. The risk of SIDS for a baby who sleeps on one side is more than double than a baby who sleeps on his back. This is because even a newborn can easily roll onto his stomach when he sleeps on his side which is very dangerous.
The majority of SIDS occur before the baby reaches 6 months of age. The peak time is found to be when the baby is between one to four months old. Once they start rolling over around six months the rate of SIDS will begin to diminish.
Make him get used to it by encouraging him to sleep on back. Safety is more important that convenience of the baby. Don’t let him know the convenience of sleeping in the sides. For this make him sleep on his back as early as possible. Even if he is not comfortable he will get used to this safe position gradually.
A baby’s head is very soft at the time of birth. This is to permit the growth of the brain that happens during the first year of life, apart from facilitating the delivery. When a baby sleeps in the same position during most of the times, the soft and movable skull plates leave a flat spot on that area of the head of the baby. It is an appearance problem rather than a medical problem as it will not affect the development of the brain. Read more on the topic here
Yes, your baby can develop flat spot at the back of the head if you put him to sleep always on his back (which is highly recommended). The hair is also found to grow less on these parts.
Flat spots don’t need any treatment and will vanish as the baby grows up as they reposition themselves. The following steps will help you to prevent the flat spot or normalize the shape of the skull if already your child developed a flat spot.
Once your baby passed six months of age, he will start rolling over himself, which is another developmental milestone of your baby. So during this phase, there are chances that your baby rolling over to his stomach even if you put him to sleep in his back position. No need to disturb his sleep by turning him to back position if he himself rolls onto his stomach during his sleep. Instead, watch him closely and never let him alone while he sleeps.
Click here to read more from our section on Baby Sleep And Rest.
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