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It's all about what you're comfortable with. We put DD2 down on her tummy from very early as well (maybe 3 weeks old, possibly four?) as it was really the only way she would sleep. She obviously wan't rolling yet but she had great head and neck control and I was comfortable with our decision. She also slept in a PnP right next to our bed so I could check on her frequently.

I know a lot of people would never do it, but honestly, I felt confident in our decision and it was what worked for us.

I would never do it. I completely understand some babies sleep better on their tummy. Both my girls didn't start STTN until they were probably closer to a year when they started rolling to their tummy when I put them down. It was really rough waking every 2-3 hours every night. But the risk really wasn't worth it for me.

I definitely wouldn't at that young when they have no neck strength or head control.

I never did, but I wasn't tempted- my older daughter hated being on her stomach until she was much older. So yeah, back was definitely beat for her!

If she had like tummy sleeping I probably would have been ok doing it for naps when I was in the room with her for the most part. I think I would have been too nervous to do it at night, but I don't know. Sleep is really important to everyone!

My 2 week old would shimmy onto her stomach in our bed and then sleep sooo well. The only time I've let her tummy sleep (she's 9 weeks) is when I am fully awake & present to check on her frequently. She had great neck strength, but I won't feel comfortable with solo stomach sleeping until she's able to roll.

Despite conventional wisdom, it's really not clear that the back to sleep campaign reduced SIDS deaths. These are deaths that are essentially unclassified - not understood - and part of the decrease since back to sleep started in the early 90s may simply be coroners filling out another cause of death on the certificate. There are >10x more SIDS deaths in Mississippi than in NY, but identified causes of infant death are higher in NY and it has more to do with how the deaths are classified, not that SIDS is actually that much different. Also, back to sleep emphasized creating a safe sleeping environment more generally - like keeping blankets and other objects out of the crib, which we know is dangerous, and that may have played a role in the decline. Over half of all infants who die of SIDS are on their backs, not on their stomachs. Studies that led to the back to sleep recommendations in the first place have small sample sizes and are not all that compelling.

Ultimately SIDS are deaths that aren't understood, there's things we think might reduce them, like back sleep or breastfeeding, but ultimately we don't really know since we don't know what causes these deaths in the first place, they're rare, and the statistical associations are weak. I think half the reason we have these recommendations is that people want to feel like they are doing something to stop horrible things from happening, but sometimes there is just nothing that you can do. One hypothesis is that SIDS is oftentimes caused by undetected cardiac issues and really has nothing to do with what parents do or don't do. If following a recommendation that might, maybe decrease the risk of infant death leads to behavior that we know increases that risk - like falling asleep with the baby on the couch in the middle of the night - it personally doesn't seem worth it. There's some evidence that advice not to bed share has backfired, precisely because people then fall asleep with an infant in a chair or on a couch, which is much more dangerous than bed sharing following certain recommendations.

I'd pull out all the other stops before turning to tummy sleeping. Have you tried tight (arm) swaddle + loud white noise + pacifier + bouncing on an exercise ball for a few minutes? This combination worked for both of my boys. After hearing about a couple friends of friends who experienced SIDS while tummy sleeping, I didn't want to risk it.

My daughter slept in a RNP till 4 mo. After that she rolled on her tummy in her crib she has always been a stomach sleeper.

I know some people don't believe in it but my Angel Care monitor gives me piece of mind.

@hb3233: Yes, thank you! I've been bed sharing with my 2 week old, and out of neuroticism I've been looking into a lot of the SIDS research - it's often murky at best.

@hb3233: I believe that the SIDS rate in New Zealand reduced seven fold since the "Back to Sleep" campaign was introduced so it has definitely made a difference over here.

it isn't something i am comfortable with. i feel like i can be pretty easy going about a lot of stuff, but that would make me worry a lot because of the lack of strength in case they got stuck in a weird position.

@Kemma: Establishing causality requires both that SIDS is diagnosed consistently over time (which it's not, since it's a residual category of deaths we don't understand) and that there not be other trends happening around the same time that also led to a decline in infant deaths, which is a hard argument to make as a lot is going on. A decline had already started before the BTSC, which is suggestive of something else at least partially driving the downward trend. There's not an accepted medical link between sleep position and SIDS, dozens of biological mechanisms have been proposed without much agreement. The fact that it could reduce SIDS is plausibly enough to recommend it, but the scientific evidence is thin.

@hb3233: lots of good points there...interesting, thanks for sharing!!!

I did a ton of research and read a lot of studies on the risks and SIDS...there is a really interesting study that was done in New Zealand on the toxicity of mattresses. Once people started wrapping their mattresses, therefore limiting the toxic off gassing, the rate of SIDS dropped dramatically. SIDS is also more common in the winter months when homes are closed up and we don't get as much airflow. There is a lot of people who think the rate of SIDS is directly correlated with toxins in the environment, specifically in our bedding and mattresses. (Unfortunately I don't have the energy to google the links to these studies but they should be easy enough to find if you're interested!)

Due to the info above, we chose to get a non toxic mattress for his crib and we ended up stomach sleeping LO almost immediately after we came home from the hospital. We tried to sleep him on his back but he would roll to the side. No joke, he did this the day we came home from the hospital. He fully rolled from tummy to back at like 6 weeks. He had unusually strong head control from the beginning. (I later learned it was due to a tight dura mater from a "traumatic" birth -said his chiropractor) the stomach sleeping helped with his reflux as well, as it naturally closes the esophageal sphincter.

It's all about what YOU feel comfortable with as a parent.