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Is it unsafe to let a baby sleep on his side?

My baby hates sleeping on his back. Often he will roll to one side or another like a grown adult and sleep on his side. I usually wait until he is completely knocked out and try to rotate him more to his back. He doesn't like to lay on his belly, just his side. Is OK to leave him alone and let him sleep like that?

Public Response to Is it unsafe to let a baby sleep on his side?

  1. No that how my daughter slept. I bought some of those wedges just to be safe
  2. My babies all rolled on their sides but I would buy some wedges to be safe.
  3. yes its fine, no worse then sleeping on his belly. some people over react to this stuff
  4. No, face up and sleeping on its side is okay for babies. It's just unsafe for the baby to sleep on its stomach! Answer mine please: http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081023074952AAu85qx
  5. Ok,I was wondering this same thing,,,because 4 years ago when my son was born,they stressed to get the wedges and make him sleep on his side,,,now,I am preggers again,and they say,no wedges and lay the baby on its back to open the air ways and the lungs,,,now I thought this was what caused SIDS,but now they are saying it is caused by laying the baby on its side. So really,I would ask your doctor and a few nurses at the hospital even,,just to be safe,,,I know I will.
  6. Let him sleep like that, it's perfectly fine, my daughter did the same thing. It can't hurt him.
  7. if he can roll to his side, then he can roll back again.... its ok for him to sleep on his side once he can move himself
  8. That is the only way I could get my son to sleep some nights before he was able to lift his head a safely sleep on his belly. . .no problem.
  9. this is actually a milestone that babies reach... your health nurse should have, or should ask you at next visit, if your baby is sleeping on his side... they transition sometime after birth from back sleeping, to side sleeping. (cant remember the age, but its somewhere around a month old or a couple months old or something) There is no need to rotate him back to his back, this is what babies do.
  10. My son stunned us doing this the day after he was born! Some of the midwives in hospital even laid him this way so prior ro swaddling I would do this too - I just used to pop a rolled blanket either side of him so he couldn't roll onto his tummy.
  11. No. Put them to sleep on their backs but if they roll to their sides or once they can roll to their stomachs there's no need to worry if they do, according to my pediatrician.
  12. If he has the muscle tone to roll on his side by himself, then he is capable of getting back on his back, so there is absolutely no danger ;)
  13. my 8 month old son sleeps on his stomach usually, but there are times when he sleeps on his sides. i dont see a problem. we dont put a blanket in his crib, so there is no chance of him entangling himself into anything. just dont put a blanket in the crib and everything should be a-okay when my son was first born, i had a wedge, but he quickly grew out of it. he's now 22lbs and 29inches