Is it bad for a baby to sleep on his stomach?

YES, it is bad for a baby to sleep on his stomach . You should know what it is, around five or six months of age, when babies learn to roll over on their own. This is a natural fact experienced by the little ones once they acquire control of their head, at the same time they manage to sit without leaning on anything. Then, parents begin to wonder if it is bad for a baby to sleep on their stomach, alarmed by the risk of the child suffering from sudden infant death syndrome. If this is your case, do not worry. In this article we explain why babies sleep on their stomachs, we give you some guidelines on how to act in this situation and we answer the following question: is it bad for a baby to sleep on his stomach?

Why a baby turns around

When a baby learns to turn around it is impossible for a father to get the child to stay on his back all night while he sleeps. This situation usually occurs around five or six months of age, however, in some babies occurs before, about two or three months, for reasons such as the child wants to reach a toy that is too far, for example .

For a baby to be able to turn around he must have the muscles of both the neck and arms already formed and strengthened to support his own weight. The process of turning over occurs as follows: the baby is resting on the stomach and the first thing he does is raise his head slightly, followed by the men. To achieve this, he holds his arms to the ground and then turns on them and ... Congratulations, your baby has turned around on his own!

It is important to keep in mind that, although the most common is that babies turn from the stomach to the back, it can also happen that they do the opposite, that is, from the back of the body to the abdomen.

The risks of sleeping on your stomach for a baby

The syndrome of sudden death of the baby is the term used to describe the unforeseen death of a baby under one year of age and with an optimal state of health. The death of the little one takes place, generally, throughout the night, when he is sleeping.

Although it is not known for sure why this death, it has been shown that the position that the baby adopts at bedtime is a considerable risk factor: sleeping on the stomach increases the chances that the child may suffer Sudden death because he runs the risk of suffocation by sticking his face too much to the sheets without realizing it, thus hindering his own breathing.

In this other article we tell you how to position the baby.

YES, it's bad for a baby to sleep on his stomach

So, the answer to the question we posed at the beginning of the article about s i is that it is bad for a baby to sleep on his stomach is YES . As we have seen, sudden death is a serious risk for any baby sleeping on his stomach, despite the fact that, in the past, it was recommended to place the baby in this position to avoid drowning with possible vomiting.

Currently, pediatricians say that the safest position for the baby is to sleep on his back, since, in this way, the baby is protected against the risk of sudden death syndrome. This is the position in which the baby should sleep at least throughout his first year of life. It is also advisable to avoid placing it on its side because it would be very easy for the baby to turn around and turn upside down again.

However, you have to bear in mind that a baby, by nature, tends to lie face down on the floor and this is not bad, as long as the child is awake; the little one should spend time leaning on his abdomen, moving and stimulating the development of the muscles of the neck and arms.

In this other article we tell you which are the best positions to sleep the baby.