Pediatric Pearls. Safe Sleep: Digging into the recommendations when it's your granddaughter

November 7, 2023

The dilemma

As the grandmother of three adorable children, when I am asked to watch or help with the kids the answer is always, YES. The other night my husband and I had so much fun watching the 10-month-old and three-year-old from dinner-time to beyond bed-time. I fed the 10-month-old a bottle of mom’s expressed milk and put her to sleep on her back, which I assumed I was suppose to do. She did not like that and started crying immediately. I then got a text from my son that read, “We are putting Izzy to sleep on her stomach now.” (Don’t you love the cameras!) I went back in, did some more hugs and snugs, and put her on her tummy and pretty quickly she was asleep. That got me thinking about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, when it peaks and when it is recommended to put babies to sleep on their stomachs. Was it safe to be putting her on her tummy?