Q&A: Is stomach sleeping as bad as everyone seems to make it sound now?

I don't have a key bit of information — the age of your baby, but since he isn't yet rolling, I'll assume he is under 4 months old.

Here is some perspective on the importance of the SIDS / sleeping position issue. Since 1992, when the "Back To Sleep" campaign was launched to increase the number of infants put to sleep on their backs, the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome has fallen in America by 40 percent!

Yet it remains the third leading cause of death for infants under one year, ranking right behind malformations and issues relating to prematurity. Other countries with similiar campaigns have had similiar sucess.

We still don't know for sure why the tummy position increases the SIDS risk. A leading theory is that it allows overheating or re-breathing air, which is then related to too much carbon dioxide and too little oxygen, and subsequent death. Ninety percent of infants who die of SIDS are under 6 months of age, most are between 3 and 5 months old. Neither do we know why this is the most vulnerable age. Other important risk factors are the use of soft bedding and smoking in the mother.

You are right that medical advice has changed for this generation. You are also right in that many, many children have slept on their stomachs and done fine. And the odds are that your son would, too.

However, any increased risk isn't worth it when it comes to a child, so I'd encourage you to keep him on his back—despite the wails—at least until he is well past 6 months old.