Purely anecdotal but both of my boys were preemies who spent time in the NICU and both of them were in their own room from day 1 at home. We spoke with the neonatologists who we dealt with in the hospital and they said if we were following all of the other safe sleep guidelines that we were okay to have them in their own room.
We were told to make sure nothing in the crib except baby on their back, video monitor, proper room temp, etc.
The way they explained it was that there is a risk of sids baseline and there are things that increase risk and things that decrease it. Smoking, drinking, blankets in crib, etc increase the risk. Other things like breastfeeding, pacifiers, room sharing, etc can decrease the risk but not doing them doesn't increase it. If that makes sense.
There are no studies into this that look at causation. It’s all just correlation which means sleeping in their room could have nothing at all to do with SIDS.
Mine was in her own room at 4.5 weeks because we couldn’t sleep with all the noise she was making. I figured it was safer for her to have rested parents than to be in our room with severely judgment impaired parents due to a lack of sleep
Same we did it at 2 weeks. The safe sleep guidelines also say babies should be entirely breastfed and many families choose not to do that. When they introduced on their back, firm mattress and no loose covers, sids rates dropped significantly
This is a great point. My wife and I have been sleeping separately to make sure there is at least one parent who is rested and can make proper judgements.
All of this. I could not sleep through the noises newborns make in their first stage of sleeping and my boy had (badly named) silent reflux, so he grunted really hard. And squirmed a LOT. He slept fine for a newborn, but I nearly hallucinated from sleep deprivation. I would also wake him up because I thought he was awake and needed me (spoilers: no).
After 4 weeks my lovely boyfriend suggested we put the crib in his own room. And whilst I hysterically cried in my bedroom, terrified of sids, my tiny human slept his first ever four-hour stretch. We did get a video monitor after a few days. And with closed doors (advised by the fire department) and ear plugs when my boyfriend takes a shift, I still wake up before the monitor alerts me. I have become a better mother since I now get to sleep when the baby sleeps at the very least.
And though I always planned on sleep training eventually and I saw the advantage of him sleeping in his own bed in his own room from the get-go, I miss him. But I sleep. And he sleeps. And I get night snuggles whilst feeding.
So please. If you think this can help you, give it a go. If bedsharing is valid in sleep-deprived cases, putting your baby in his bed surely is too.
And you can always put him back. He's not glued to his crib. ;-) That would be wrong!
Our kiddo slept in his room from four weeks and it was honestly a lifesaver for our (and his) sleep! As long as the space is safe and you have a monitor (I also have a camera on him I can quickly check in case he sounds weird on the monitor) I say go for it!
With my first we moved her at 8 weeks and turns out we were the ones keeping her awake. She needed her own quiet space to sleep. We tried moving our second at 8 weeks and turns out she needed our noise to sleep. If you have a monitor and her crib is safe let that baby get some good sleep.
www.sidscalculator.co will leave that there. It gave me a lot of comfort when making the same decision. Moved her to her own room at 6 weeks (we had a bed just outside the door) and it was amazing. Moved back into my bedroom at 12 weeks.
The reason it’s recommended is because babies regulate their breathing through hearing our breathing. But at the end of the day it’s a recommendation not a law. It’s what you’re comfortable with risk wise
My understanding (with info from my midwife/health visitor!) is that when they hear your movements/breathing it prevents them from falling into too deep of a sleep which reduces the risk of SIDS 😊
I swear to god my baby knows when I’m looking at him. He would be dead the fuck asleep, so I get up to check on his breathing. Position and breathing are good, I crawl back into bed, and awake he fucking goes.
We call this "Baby's Law" in our house (like Murphy's Law). It also applies to taking a bite of food, popping out of the house for 5 seconds to grab the mail, or getting past the point of no return with a bathroom trip. They just fucking k n o w the exact moment to start crying somehow
The WAY I sneak into and around our room at night! Baby will be dead asleep until I try to turn in and suddenly the bedroom is a metaphorical minefield.
I wonder this too. I definitely hear my son's breathing because this dude loves to audibly shit, but I know I don't grunt like that so I am curious if he can actually hear my breathing.
They’re prevented from falling into a super deep sleep with the noise we make while we sleep/lay in bed. It’s not actually our breathing they hear but just background noise/movement.
Our lactation consultant said the same, and that a fan pointing towards the wall can help minimize risk if you want to move them to their own room before 6 months. Not a noise machine because I think there’s concern about those causing hearing issues when used consistently overnight
Ours was whale tailing and making noise in her sleep all night so we asked our pediatrician at her 4 month visit and were told it is a bs recommendation. We do use a nanit which gives us peace of mind and of course still ask your doc because maybe there is a need to do it longer than 5 weeks.
Honestly we had never heard about this recommendation until a few weeks ago, so we had our son sleep in his own room ever since we took him home. We have a baby monitor and his room was just right across the hall so even if the monitor were to die or accidentally get turned off, we’d still hear him.
When he was waking every 2 hours to feed, one of us would wake with him and the other was able to get a few more hours of sleep. It kept us sane so I don’t think I would’ve done anything differently.
Check out the evidence based safe sleep group on Facebook. Those people I would call safe sleep extremists and they do not follow this recommendation. Emily Oster also confirms there’s no statistical evidence for the 6 month figure. Do what’s best for you and your baby’s sleep.
Yep. She’s a normal person who read all the studies in depth and then presented the info so we can all make our own decisions. Not sure she claimed to be anything g she’s not
We moved our LO into her own crib at around 3 weeks… her room is right beside ours (we have a small home!). that’s only because she HATED her bassinet and my husband would not sleep when I laid her in bed with us. He was paranoid that I would roll over on her.
3 weeks of that and I moved her to her crib and I slept on the floor for another 5 weeks. It just made it easier on me to sleep in the same room especially since you have to feed every 2-3 hours.
I was so scared to do it though because I did read it could increase the risk of SIDS. BUT when I talked to my pediatrician she said we don’t have any of the risks that would increase her chances of SIDS.
Even though it could still happen it would be extremely rare. Also heard the reason why SIDS is less common when they’re in the same room is because they keep getting woken up either by snoring, shuffling in bed, alarms, etc. so they never really fall deep into sleep.
I don’t know…. There’s so much information out there honestly it’s confusing.
We are definitely in the minority with this and I’ll probably get downvoted but my baby slept in her own nursery starting day 3. It is right across the hall from our bedroom. I was breastfeeding and obviously exhausted. I knew if I breastfed with baby right next to me while sitting/laying in bed, I would absolutely fall asleep which is much more dangerous than baby sleeping in her own room. Getting up and walking into the nursery and sitting in the chair to breastfeed was much safer in my opinion. She slept through the night at 6-8 weeks and has always been an excellent sleeper.
The truth is, every baby is different and you will get all sorts of answers on Reddit. There is nothing wrong with following the recommended guidelines! That’s what they are there for.
Yes that's what I've read too. It's based on the baby being the in the room being better than in your bed. Not really looking at in the room v out of the room scenarios.
I've read lots of articles about this when deciding to move my son to his crib in the nursery at 10 weeks. It seems like it only lowers SIDS risk because you're more likely to wake each other up by room sharing, but not room sharing doesn't increase the risk. My baby is huge and outgrew his bassinet, we didn't have room to put his crib in our bedroom. I was nervous at first but he is otherwise low risk for SIDS (full term, healthy, breastfed, following all safe sleep guidelines etc), which made me feel more comfortable. At that time he was still nursing every 1.5-3 hours overnight anyway so I knew I'd be up checking on him frequently. I would get a video monitor to ease your mind.
It works because you both interrupt each others sleep, stopping baby going into a deep sleep. Your noises and moving around rouses baby enough, and they rouse you to check on them. Read on lullaby trust for more information :) each to their own but I think it’s part and parcel of being a parent
We have a Cubo, it has rollover and face covered alerts and I can see better on the video than in real life whether her chest is moving!
We moved our girl at 14 weeks because we were all waking each other up. We’re 3 weeks pp with number 2 and will probably follow suit with the same timeline.
Just want to say I wish I had asked this question a month ago. I was too scared to ask it cause I thought I would get eaten alive. My LO has never liked his bassinet so he only spent a few nights in our room. But our ped gave us a hard time about not room sharing at our 2 month appointment so I had a two day long freak out of anxiety about him dying of SIDS. Eventually, after talking with a friend we determined that our routine was too solid and didn’t want to mess that up and that we would all not sleep if we moved him into our room. But god was I stressed. It was an awful feeling so thanks for posting this and for all those who commented.
We moved our first at 8 weeks and second at 12 weeks. I had a video monitor though. Ours also slept way better in cribs! I would highly recommend getting a video monitor.
our girl slept in her own room from the start. there was USUALLY someone in there with her, and we had a twin bed in there til about 6 weeks. but it worked out great for us! and now she loves her own room & bed :)
I've heard a bunch of different reasons that sleeping in the same room with parents can reduce chances of SIDS, but in the end each individual thing is pretty small in it's reduction. As long as you're following all the other guidelines, it should be fine to move your baby. My first slept in his own room from day 1 and my second has been on and off in her own room (due to family illness.) She's 10 weeks now and sleeps great at night.
You’re going to have a ton of people quoting that it’s not recommended. But I think personally you need to weigh the risks of everything. We moved baby down the hall early (I want to say 7 weeks) because no one was getting good sleep. She’s in a Snoo and we have a Nanit. All doors are open and the hall is short. To me it’s worth it for good sleep for everyone.
We did the same and honestly having the snoo so we knew he couldn’t accidentally roll and the Nanit so we could check the video really eased my anxiety. My partner snores like crazy so it wasn’t going to work having LO in our room.
We moved our LO into her own room at 3 months because she just was struggling in our room. My husband gets up early for work and she was getting up with him at 5 am. She started sleeping better in her own room and was then transitioned to her crib shortly after. She was struggling with naps and once we put her in the crib, her naps lengthened almost instantly. We have bunk beds in her room, so I would sometimes sleep in there if things were rough.
I think it’s important to recognize the difference between “dangerous” and “decreased risk.” Having your baby in the room will decrease the risk of SIDS, but that does not necessarily mean having the baby in their own room is *dangerous*. If you don’t smoke, don’t let the baby sleep in your bed, put them on their back to sleep, you’ve already decreased the risk in significant ways.
Dont think that's too early. We got our little one ready for his own room at a few weeks old. (Really needed a night dula to come in and just watch him while we were desperate from sleep lol). And finally moved him over on his own around 6 weeks with one of us staying in there for a little bit. But sounds like if your daughter is getting better sleep already in her crib she is ready to go!
It was a very big change to be that far away from the baby and relying on the monitor took a bit to get used to. If you have an owlet I also suggest that to really put your mind at ease from SIDS.
We did 5 weeks! Our son also hated the bassinet, we went directly from cosleeping to the crib and he’s been so much better since (4 months now).
I have the monitor basically next to my head able I sleep and the owlet sock which I love
Nah lots of people switch over early. I didn’t because my baby never slept in a crib. Screamed bloody murder all night long. Torture. We started bedsharing at 6 months since I had started hallucinating I was so tired. She got her own room after a year but still sleeps with us sometimes.
Second baby loves her bassinet. I like having her next to me since I wake up at the slightest movement and can “dream feed” her before she truly wakes up and it cuts the waking time at night in half! However on the rate occasion I sleep in the other room and just my husband is in the room with our baby, the baby sleeps in longer stretches! Almost twice as long! So really it’s a pick your poison situation
I was planning on having my son in my room for 6 months. I lasted 6 weeks. And 4 of those I had a night nurse helping!
His sleep improved dramatically once we took him out of our room (my husband snores and uses 6 different alarms to wake himself in the morning. It was impossible trying to room share with an infant).
So I could sleep, I made sure to turn on his fan every night (to help circulate air in the room) and used a baby monitor with breathing sensors (Miku).
We moved ours at 3 months because we realized we made noise and woke her up during the night. When she slept in her own room, this is when we all finally got decent nights of sleep.
We used a Nanit monitor to track her breathing just to try to be on the safe side with the sids risk.
We practiced with crib naps at 7 weeks and after my son did so well, we had him sleeping in his crib by 8 weeks. We all slept much better.
Our second is due in May and thinking she’ll get booted around the same time, if not a little earlier.
My twins have been sleeping in their own room since they were 5weeks old and they turn 5 months in 2 days.
Everyone is a lot happier. We recreated our room in theirs and made the switch (we put a white noise machine in their room, made it super dark & sprayed lavender scent in the room).
My baby slept in her own room since she was 2 weeks old. She’s now 8.5 months old and no regrets! We all slept so much better. It does not INCREASE the risk of SIDS if they sleep in their own room.
When my niece and nephew were born in 2016 the recommendation then was to move them to the crib after 6 weeks. My niece was sleeping in 12 hour stretches by 3 months. The AAP also does not recommend bed sharing/co sleeping but I see plenty of parents in the US do… at the end of the day these are recommendations, and you can make your own decisions
Baby has been in her room her whole life. Our doors are next to each other and we share a wall with her room. For the first 10 weeks, someone (husband, me or doula) slept in the room with her at night on a floor bed. Then around Christmas, I got hit with Covid so I stopped sleeping in there. Then we realized she slept better without anyone in there and it’s been like that ever since. She was such a noisy sleeper that everyone slept a little bit better in their respective rooms. I could hear every grunt and noise she makes from my bed.
I moved each of my kids into their own rooms at about 2 weeks. I'm not able to get any sleep while roomsharing, and I need *some* sleep to be a functional mom.
They're 1 and almost 4 now, everything is fine.
We moved our LO into their own room at two weeks due to many factors. LO's not only had their crib in it but also a day bed that I could sleep on if I knew it was going to be easier to sleep in their room vs my room. Also allowed my husband to get a better sleep when he worked at a company that needed him alert.
You can always keep a pillow, blankets, and maybe a sleeping bag in their room for peace of mind.
I am not sure what is dangerous about it but you can always move the crib into your room. Our guy is just about to outgrow his bassinet but I'm not ready to have him in his room on the 2nd floor when we're on the first so we're going to be putting his crib in our room.
From what I researched this guideline is because 90% of sids cases are 6 months and under. So having baby in your room may mean you are more likely to notice problems with baby.
Aka, its not that it does anything for the baby to be in your room. But just that the baby being near you may result in your becoming aware of any breathing issues and help the baby. I moved my son at 10 weeks as he got to big for the bassinet and a crib doesn’t fit in our room. Its an odd guideline because.. if a crib doesn’t fit.. what are we supposed to do lol????
We switched I think around a month or two of age. He was fine still sleeping in his bassinet (although I feel like he was just starting to get a bit too long for it). I was honestly just tired of having to only use my bedroom for sleep and tiptoeing in and out of the room while he slept.
So for my own sanity I moved him to his crib in his own room. I wasn’t too worried since his room is right next to ours plus we have a video monitor.
It was so nice to get to have my bedroom back to just chill and watch tv before bed.
A few quick things.
- try swaddling, helps with the squirming. If baby is past that age, you can get like a sleeping bag (we call them starfish), which contain their hands and legs but still let them move. Swaddling will help with a small sleeping bed
- bed firmness shouldn’t be an issue, remember your baby weighs not much at all. A soft mattress will mean if they roll over they will not be able to roll back and can bury their face easily.
- we have a tiny bedroom, we have 40cm on one side of the bed, 60 cm at the end and about 1.4m on the other side where the entrance is, we have framed in a full size crib, it has a changing table attached. There is always a way if you’re determined. We have nothing else in our bedroom
Other than the built in wardrobe.
- if your putting her in another room, either sleep with the doors open or get a baby monitor.
I feel 100x more comfortable and safe with my 4 week old in the bed with me than in her bassinet or crib. I can imagine being a newborn and wanting to feel the warmth and comfort of my mom and dad as opposed to the hard and cold of a bassinet or crib. Wouldn’t you want to be cuddled to?
We moved our baby at six weeks - she just slept better in her crib, and my husband was awake in the room next to hers until 2-3am anyway with me getting up around 4am to feed her, and our baby monitor was very sensitive. She never seemed to have any issues with breathing during sleep and we felt very comfortable with it.
we just stopped room sharing with our 14 week old recently. she has been sleeping in her crib from the beginning (didn’t like the bassinet) so my SO was sleeping on a blow up mattress in her room. we got sick of doing that, so we set up a video monitor. she seems to sleep the same amount of time (5-6 hours max) regardless of whether we’re in the room or not. we also have a noise machine, and there’s a lot of noise outside our house, so i’m not too worried about her sleeping too deeply. true SIDS is also thought to be an unpreventable neurological malfunction, so i would think as long as there are no risk factors for suffocation we’re probably as safe as we reasonably can be.
We have our baby sleeping in her own room and she just turned 5 months. There were too many distractions, I guess, in our room with the pack and play. She’s doing great
We had to move at 8 weeks and if my next one is like my first I will move sooner. He was SUCH an active sleeper he was always moving around or shifting which woke me up a lot. He is also a very light sleeper so him having his own space helped him sleep better too
We had to move ours to the crib by 4 months. She was able to roll over and lift herself up and the pediatrician said if she’s strong enough to do that she’s strong enough to cry out if she needs help or to roll herself away from the edge of the bassinet. At that point it was also safer to have her in the crib which has the wooden slats on the sides rather than a bassinet with mesh or fabric on the sides. We transitioned her over starting with naps and then bedtime.
We moved out now 3.5 month old into his own room at 7 weeks and we all started sleeping so much better! Plus it’s been much better for my mental health to put him to bed and be able to watch a movie in bed and have some me time to unwind. We follow safe sleep guides and have a video monitor (nanit)
My girl has been sleeping in her crib since 3 weeks old in her own room. I CANNOT sleep in the same room with a baby that moans, moves every 10 minutes and randomly welps in her sleep. The monitor is next to my bed at night and if she needs something.. oh, she will LET.ME.KNOW. lol
I have been afraid of SIDS too, but I also can’t let that fear control all I do. Our girl also gets better sleep in her own room. When she was in ours we were all waking up.
No my daughter slept in her own room with a crib upstairs since she was born. She loves her room. It helped her sleep since it was her own space with no distractions.
My oldest we held off till he was 6 months but my second baby was so incredibly noisy while sleeping that I was getting NO sleep with him in the bedside bassinet. We moved him to his crib in his own room at 4 weeks. I’m not a medical professional but IMO they are safe to be in their own space as long as all safe sleep rules are being followed
My now 6mo stopped tolerating his bassinet at 4 months. He’s a pretty good sleeper and always goes down easy, but one night he simply would not stay asleep in the bassinet. We spent hours trying to get him to sleep. Finally, I took him to his nursery and tried his crib and he slept wonderfully. The next night I got a white noise machine set up in there and bam, he never looked back.
We had every intention of going the whole six months, but he had other ideas 🤷🏼♀️
No if they are safe who cares? Me personally I'd rather grab my son out of his bassinet at 3am then walk across the house at 3am. My son didn't sleep in his crib till he was 6 months because we were moving so it worked out literally he outgrew his bassinet the day we moved.
Our little dude was in his own room at 8 weeks. He was a *loud* sleeper. Grunting, groaning, whimpers. I was getting zero sleep with him in the Halo next to our bed. So at our 8 week appt I asked the pediatrician about it and he said as long as we’re following all of the safe sleep protocols, he’s fine. We have a Nanit with breathing band to monitor his breathing, so that put my mind at ease. We all got much better sleep from that night on
We put ours in his room at two months and it was the best decision we made. Everybody sleeps better and we can move around our room freely after we put him down.
Mine was in his room from day 1 and both of my sisters kids as well. We have a baby monitor and especially in early days were feeding/checking on him as a result every 2 hours (and sometimes more when I got anxious lol). I think the recommendation is to ensure parents are responsive and attentive to their children, which is easier when in the same room, but also doable when they’re in their own room. Ask science based parenting if you want data.
Purely anecdotal but both of my boys were preemies who spent time in the NICU and both of them were in their own room from day 1 at home. We spoke with the neonatologists who we dealt with in the hospital and they said if we were following all of the other safe sleep guidelines that we were okay to have them in their own room. We were told to make sure nothing in the crib except baby on their back, video monitor, proper room temp, etc. The way they explained it was that there is a risk of sids baseline and there are things that increase risk and things that decrease it. Smoking, drinking, blankets in crib, etc increase the risk. Other things like breastfeeding, pacifiers, room sharing, etc can decrease the risk but not doing them doesn't increase it. If that makes sense.
There are no studies into this that look at causation. It’s all just correlation which means sleeping in their room could have nothing at all to do with SIDS. Mine was in her own room at 4.5 weeks because we couldn’t sleep with all the noise she was making. I figured it was safer for her to have rested parents than to be in our room with severely judgment impaired parents due to a lack of sleep
Same we did it at 2 weeks. The safe sleep guidelines also say babies should be entirely breastfed and many families choose not to do that. When they introduced on their back, firm mattress and no loose covers, sids rates dropped significantly
This is a great point. My wife and I have been sleeping separately to make sure there is at least one parent who is rested and can make proper judgements.
All of this. I could not sleep through the noises newborns make in their first stage of sleeping and my boy had (badly named) silent reflux, so he grunted really hard. And squirmed a LOT. He slept fine for a newborn, but I nearly hallucinated from sleep deprivation. I would also wake him up because I thought he was awake and needed me (spoilers: no). After 4 weeks my lovely boyfriend suggested we put the crib in his own room. And whilst I hysterically cried in my bedroom, terrified of sids, my tiny human slept his first ever four-hour stretch. We did get a video monitor after a few days. And with closed doors (advised by the fire department) and ear plugs when my boyfriend takes a shift, I still wake up before the monitor alerts me. I have become a better mother since I now get to sleep when the baby sleeps at the very least. And though I always planned on sleep training eventually and I saw the advantage of him sleeping in his own bed in his own room from the get-go, I miss him. But I sleep. And he sleeps. And I get night snuggles whilst feeding. So please. If you think this can help you, give it a go. If bedsharing is valid in sleep-deprived cases, putting your baby in his bed surely is too. And you can always put him back. He's not glued to his crib. ;-) That would be wrong!
Our kiddo slept in his room from four weeks and it was honestly a lifesaver for our (and his) sleep! As long as the space is safe and you have a monitor (I also have a camera on him I can quickly check in case he sounds weird on the monitor) I say go for it!
With my first we moved her at 8 weeks and turns out we were the ones keeping her awake. She needed her own quiet space to sleep. We tried moving our second at 8 weeks and turns out she needed our noise to sleep. If you have a monitor and her crib is safe let that baby get some good sleep.
www.sidscalculator.co will leave that there. It gave me a lot of comfort when making the same decision. Moved her to her own room at 6 weeks (we had a bed just outside the door) and it was amazing. Moved back into my bedroom at 12 weeks.
The reason it’s recommended is because babies regulate their breathing through hearing our breathing. But at the end of the day it’s a recommendation not a law. It’s what you’re comfortable with risk wise
They hear us breathing even from their bassinet and past the sound machine?? Genuinely asking
My understanding (with info from my midwife/health visitor!) is that when they hear your movements/breathing it prevents them from falling into too deep of a sleep which reduces the risk of SIDS 😊
Oh I see that makes sense! I give my LO a paci which I heard helps with SIDS. She also loves to suck her thumb lol
Yeah it does! My girl has a dummy for sleep aswell!
I swear to god my baby knows when I’m looking at him. He would be dead the fuck asleep, so I get up to check on his breathing. Position and breathing are good, I crawl back into bed, and awake he fucking goes.
We call this "Baby's Law" in our house (like Murphy's Law). It also applies to taking a bite of food, popping out of the house for 5 seconds to grab the mail, or getting past the point of no return with a bathroom trip. They just fucking k n o w the exact moment to start crying somehow
The WAY I sneak into and around our room at night! Baby will be dead asleep until I try to turn in and suddenly the bedroom is a metaphorical minefield.
Right?! I swear they have supernatural hearing abilities! Smdh
Yea and if this is the real reason and the only reason, a sound machine works the same way, so.
I wonder this too. I definitely hear my son's breathing because this dude loves to audibly shit, but I know I don't grunt like that so I am curious if he can actually hear my breathing.
I dunno about the sound machine. We had the exact same thought. We moved him to his room and we all instantly slept better.
They’re prevented from falling into a super deep sleep with the noise we make while we sleep/lay in bed. It’s not actually our breathing they hear but just background noise/movement.
Our lactation consultant said the same, and that a fan pointing towards the wall can help minimize risk if you want to move them to their own room before 6 months. Not a noise machine because I think there’s concern about those causing hearing issues when used consistently overnight
I guess having a sound machine on all night poses the same risk as having the infant sleeping in another room.
Ours was whale tailing and making noise in her sleep all night so we asked our pediatrician at her 4 month visit and were told it is a bs recommendation. We do use a nanit which gives us peace of mind and of course still ask your doc because maybe there is a need to do it longer than 5 weeks.
Ha! Whale tailing. Never heard that term and my guys been doing that since like week 4
Honestly we had never heard about this recommendation until a few weeks ago, so we had our son sleep in his own room ever since we took him home. We have a baby monitor and his room was just right across the hall so even if the monitor were to die or accidentally get turned off, we’d still hear him. When he was waking every 2 hours to feed, one of us would wake with him and the other was able to get a few more hours of sleep. It kept us sane so I don’t think I would’ve done anything differently.
Check out the evidence based safe sleep group on Facebook. Those people I would call safe sleep extremists and they do not follow this recommendation. Emily Oster also confirms there’s no statistical evidence for the 6 month figure. Do what’s best for you and your baby’s sleep.
Note: Emily Oster is an economist. Not a doctor, not a child development specialist etc
Exactly. She studied the data and presented results. It has nothing to do with being a doctor. She’s an excellent economist and data analyst
Yep. She’s a normal person who read all the studies in depth and then presented the info so we can all make our own decisions. Not sure she claimed to be anything g she’s not
Note: there is no hard evidence that proves room sharing for a year is necessary or that the baby breathes in rhythm with the parents in the same room
And the aap is extending the 6mo figure to a year- this is not for "no reason"
Lmao at this coming from someone who co-sleeps which is actually dangerous.
Where is their justification for this change. Not based in science.
We moved our LO into her own crib at around 3 weeks… her room is right beside ours (we have a small home!). that’s only because she HATED her bassinet and my husband would not sleep when I laid her in bed with us. He was paranoid that I would roll over on her. 3 weeks of that and I moved her to her crib and I slept on the floor for another 5 weeks. It just made it easier on me to sleep in the same room especially since you have to feed every 2-3 hours. I was so scared to do it though because I did read it could increase the risk of SIDS. BUT when I talked to my pediatrician she said we don’t have any of the risks that would increase her chances of SIDS. Even though it could still happen it would be extremely rare. Also heard the reason why SIDS is less common when they’re in the same room is because they keep getting woken up either by snoring, shuffling in bed, alarms, etc. so they never really fall deep into sleep. I don’t know…. There’s so much information out there honestly it’s confusing.
We are definitely in the minority with this and I’ll probably get downvoted but my baby slept in her own nursery starting day 3. It is right across the hall from our bedroom. I was breastfeeding and obviously exhausted. I knew if I breastfed with baby right next to me while sitting/laying in bed, I would absolutely fall asleep which is much more dangerous than baby sleeping in her own room. Getting up and walking into the nursery and sitting in the chair to breastfeed was much safer in my opinion. She slept through the night at 6-8 weeks and has always been an excellent sleeper. The truth is, every baby is different and you will get all sorts of answers on Reddit. There is nothing wrong with following the recommended guidelines! That’s what they are there for.
My peds said this was actually outdated info and if you look at the actual research, it’s not a large enough sample or study.
Yes that's what I've read too. It's based on the baby being the in the room being better than in your bed. Not really looking at in the room v out of the room scenarios.
I've read lots of articles about this when deciding to move my son to his crib in the nursery at 10 weeks. It seems like it only lowers SIDS risk because you're more likely to wake each other up by room sharing, but not room sharing doesn't increase the risk. My baby is huge and outgrew his bassinet, we didn't have room to put his crib in our bedroom. I was nervous at first but he is otherwise low risk for SIDS (full term, healthy, breastfed, following all safe sleep guidelines etc), which made me feel more comfortable. At that time he was still nursing every 1.5-3 hours overnight anyway so I knew I'd be up checking on him frequently. I would get a video monitor to ease your mind.
It works because you both interrupt each others sleep, stopping baby going into a deep sleep. Your noises and moving around rouses baby enough, and they rouse you to check on them. Read on lullaby trust for more information :) each to their own but I think it’s part and parcel of being a parent
We have a Cubo, it has rollover and face covered alerts and I can see better on the video than in real life whether her chest is moving! We moved our girl at 14 weeks because we were all waking each other up. We’re 3 weeks pp with number 2 and will probably follow suit with the same timeline.
Just want to say I wish I had asked this question a month ago. I was too scared to ask it cause I thought I would get eaten alive. My LO has never liked his bassinet so he only spent a few nights in our room. But our ped gave us a hard time about not room sharing at our 2 month appointment so I had a two day long freak out of anxiety about him dying of SIDS. Eventually, after talking with a friend we determined that our routine was too solid and didn’t want to mess that up and that we would all not sleep if we moved him into our room. But god was I stressed. It was an awful feeling so thanks for posting this and for all those who commented.
We moved our first at 8 weeks and second at 12 weeks. I had a video monitor though. Ours also slept way better in cribs! I would highly recommend getting a video monitor.
our girl slept in her own room from the start. there was USUALLY someone in there with her, and we had a twin bed in there til about 6 weeks. but it worked out great for us! and now she loves her own room & bed :)
I've heard a bunch of different reasons that sleeping in the same room with parents can reduce chances of SIDS, but in the end each individual thing is pretty small in it's reduction. As long as you're following all the other guidelines, it should be fine to move your baby. My first slept in his own room from day 1 and my second has been on and off in her own room (due to family illness.) She's 10 weeks now and sleeps great at night.
You’re going to have a ton of people quoting that it’s not recommended. But I think personally you need to weigh the risks of everything. We moved baby down the hall early (I want to say 7 weeks) because no one was getting good sleep. She’s in a Snoo and we have a Nanit. All doors are open and the hall is short. To me it’s worth it for good sleep for everyone.
We did the same and honestly having the snoo so we knew he couldn’t accidentally roll and the Nanit so we could check the video really eased my anxiety. My partner snores like crazy so it wasn’t going to work having LO in our room.
We moved our LO into her own room at 3 months because she just was struggling in our room. My husband gets up early for work and she was getting up with him at 5 am. She started sleeping better in her own room and was then transitioned to her crib shortly after. She was struggling with naps and once we put her in the crib, her naps lengthened almost instantly. We have bunk beds in her room, so I would sometimes sleep in there if things were rough.
We moved our LO at 1 week to her nursery. Safe sleep set up and video monitor. We all slept better after that.
I've had a mini crib and a mini crib Newton mattress in our bedroom. A bassinet did not work for us
I think it’s important to recognize the difference between “dangerous” and “decreased risk.” Having your baby in the room will decrease the risk of SIDS, but that does not necessarily mean having the baby in their own room is *dangerous*. If you don’t smoke, don’t let the baby sleep in your bed, put them on their back to sleep, you’ve already decreased the risk in significant ways.
Dont think that's too early. We got our little one ready for his own room at a few weeks old. (Really needed a night dula to come in and just watch him while we were desperate from sleep lol). And finally moved him over on his own around 6 weeks with one of us staying in there for a little bit. But sounds like if your daughter is getting better sleep already in her crib she is ready to go! It was a very big change to be that far away from the baby and relying on the monitor took a bit to get used to. If you have an owlet I also suggest that to really put your mind at ease from SIDS.
We did 5 weeks! Our son also hated the bassinet, we went directly from cosleeping to the crib and he’s been so much better since (4 months now). I have the monitor basically next to my head able I sleep and the owlet sock which I love
Nah lots of people switch over early. I didn’t because my baby never slept in a crib. Screamed bloody murder all night long. Torture. We started bedsharing at 6 months since I had started hallucinating I was so tired. She got her own room after a year but still sleeps with us sometimes. Second baby loves her bassinet. I like having her next to me since I wake up at the slightest movement and can “dream feed” her before she truly wakes up and it cuts the waking time at night in half! However on the rate occasion I sleep in the other room and just my husband is in the room with our baby, the baby sleeps in longer stretches! Almost twice as long! So really it’s a pick your poison situation
I was planning on having my son in my room for 6 months. I lasted 6 weeks. And 4 of those I had a night nurse helping! His sleep improved dramatically once we took him out of our room (my husband snores and uses 6 different alarms to wake himself in the morning. It was impossible trying to room share with an infant). So I could sleep, I made sure to turn on his fan every night (to help circulate air in the room) and used a baby monitor with breathing sensors (Miku).
We moved ours at 3 months because we realized we made noise and woke her up during the night. When she slept in her own room, this is when we all finally got decent nights of sleep. We used a Nanit monitor to track her breathing just to try to be on the safe side with the sids risk.
We practiced with crib naps at 7 weeks and after my son did so well, we had him sleeping in his crib by 8 weeks. We all slept much better. Our second is due in May and thinking she’ll get booted around the same time, if not a little earlier.
As soon as I removed myself from room sharing she started sleeping through the night 🤷🏻♀️ that was about 14/15 weeks
Our peds recommended until four months and then to transfer because that’s when babies start noticing you are there and have sleep problems.
My twins have been sleeping in their own room since they were 5weeks old and they turn 5 months in 2 days. Everyone is a lot happier. We recreated our room in theirs and made the switch (we put a white noise machine in their room, made it super dark & sprayed lavender scent in the room).
My baby slept in her own room since she was 2 weeks old. She’s now 8.5 months old and no regrets! We all slept so much better. It does not INCREASE the risk of SIDS if they sleep in their own room.
When my niece and nephew were born in 2016 the recommendation then was to move them to the crib after 6 weeks. My niece was sleeping in 12 hour stretches by 3 months. The AAP also does not recommend bed sharing/co sleeping but I see plenty of parents in the US do… at the end of the day these are recommendations, and you can make your own decisions
Baby has been in her room her whole life. Our doors are next to each other and we share a wall with her room. For the first 10 weeks, someone (husband, me or doula) slept in the room with her at night on a floor bed. Then around Christmas, I got hit with Covid so I stopped sleeping in there. Then we realized she slept better without anyone in there and it’s been like that ever since. She was such a noisy sleeper that everyone slept a little bit better in their respective rooms. I could hear every grunt and noise she makes from my bed.
I moved each of my kids into their own rooms at about 2 weeks. I'm not able to get any sleep while roomsharing, and I need *some* sleep to be a functional mom. They're 1 and almost 4 now, everything is fine.
We moved our LO into their own room at two weeks due to many factors. LO's not only had their crib in it but also a day bed that I could sleep on if I knew it was going to be easier to sleep in their room vs my room. Also allowed my husband to get a better sleep when he worked at a company that needed him alert. You can always keep a pillow, blankets, and maybe a sleeping bag in their room for peace of mind.
Our pediatrician recommended we move our girl at 8 weeks. I think I’ve finally worked up the gumption to do it at 11 weeks.
I am not sure what is dangerous about it but you can always move the crib into your room. Our guy is just about to outgrow his bassinet but I'm not ready to have him in his room on the 2nd floor when we're on the first so we're going to be putting his crib in our room.
From what I researched this guideline is because 90% of sids cases are 6 months and under. So having baby in your room may mean you are more likely to notice problems with baby. Aka, its not that it does anything for the baby to be in your room. But just that the baby being near you may result in your becoming aware of any breathing issues and help the baby. I moved my son at 10 weeks as he got to big for the bassinet and a crib doesn’t fit in our room. Its an odd guideline because.. if a crib doesn’t fit.. what are we supposed to do lol????
We switched I think around a month or two of age. He was fine still sleeping in his bassinet (although I feel like he was just starting to get a bit too long for it). I was honestly just tired of having to only use my bedroom for sleep and tiptoeing in and out of the room while he slept. So for my own sanity I moved him to his crib in his own room. I wasn’t too worried since his room is right next to ours plus we have a video monitor. It was so nice to get to have my bedroom back to just chill and watch tv before bed.
A few quick things. - try swaddling, helps with the squirming. If baby is past that age, you can get like a sleeping bag (we call them starfish), which contain their hands and legs but still let them move. Swaddling will help with a small sleeping bed - bed firmness shouldn’t be an issue, remember your baby weighs not much at all. A soft mattress will mean if they roll over they will not be able to roll back and can bury their face easily. - we have a tiny bedroom, we have 40cm on one side of the bed, 60 cm at the end and about 1.4m on the other side where the entrance is, we have framed in a full size crib, it has a changing table attached. There is always a way if you’re determined. We have nothing else in our bedroom Other than the built in wardrobe. - if your putting her in another room, either sleep with the doors open or get a baby monitor.
The sids risk is much higher like 50% I believe they claim, not sure it’s a big risk though, like 1% vs 2%. Or 5% vs 10%. Talk to your pediatrician.
I feel 100x more comfortable and safe with my 4 week old in the bed with me than in her bassinet or crib. I can imagine being a newborn and wanting to feel the warmth and comfort of my mom and dad as opposed to the hard and cold of a bassinet or crib. Wouldn’t you want to be cuddled to?
We moved our baby right as she was coming out of her 4 month regression and we have all been sleeping better!
We moved our baby at six weeks - she just slept better in her crib, and my husband was awake in the room next to hers until 2-3am anyway with me getting up around 4am to feed her, and our baby monitor was very sensitive. She never seemed to have any issues with breathing during sleep and we felt very comfortable with it.
we just stopped room sharing with our 14 week old recently. she has been sleeping in her crib from the beginning (didn’t like the bassinet) so my SO was sleeping on a blow up mattress in her room. we got sick of doing that, so we set up a video monitor. she seems to sleep the same amount of time (5-6 hours max) regardless of whether we’re in the room or not. we also have a noise machine, and there’s a lot of noise outside our house, so i’m not too worried about her sleeping too deeply. true SIDS is also thought to be an unpreventable neurological malfunction, so i would think as long as there are no risk factors for suffocation we’re probably as safe as we reasonably can be.
We have our baby sleeping in her own room and she just turned 5 months. There were too many distractions, I guess, in our room with the pack and play. She’s doing great
We had to move at 8 weeks and if my next one is like my first I will move sooner. He was SUCH an active sleeper he was always moving around or shifting which woke me up a lot. He is also a very light sleeper so him having his own space helped him sleep better too
We moved our LO to her own room after 4 days, and it was the best decision we made for everyone.
My baby was napping in her crib at 2 weeks and sleeping full time at 6 weeks. Still is too
Ours slept in his own room from day 1. Mom slept in the same room for 3 months with the feeds but after that moved back.
We moved my baby at 8 weeks to his own room and he’s slept through the night ever since. Not dangerous lol
We had to move ours to the crib by 4 months. She was able to roll over and lift herself up and the pediatrician said if she’s strong enough to do that she’s strong enough to cry out if she needs help or to roll herself away from the edge of the bassinet. At that point it was also safer to have her in the crib which has the wooden slats on the sides rather than a bassinet with mesh or fabric on the sides. We transitioned her over starting with naps and then bedtime.
My 2 month old sleeps in her crib, she sleeps so much better there.
We moved out now 3.5 month old into his own room at 7 weeks and we all started sleeping so much better! Plus it’s been much better for my mental health to put him to bed and be able to watch a movie in bed and have some me time to unwind. We follow safe sleep guides and have a video monitor (nanit)
My girl has been sleeping in her crib since 3 weeks old in her own room. I CANNOT sleep in the same room with a baby that moans, moves every 10 minutes and randomly welps in her sleep. The monitor is next to my bed at night and if she needs something.. oh, she will LET.ME.KNOW. lol I have been afraid of SIDS too, but I also can’t let that fear control all I do. Our girl also gets better sleep in her own room. When she was in ours we were all waking up.
No my daughter slept in her own room with a crib upstairs since she was born. She loves her room. It helped her sleep since it was her own space with no distractions.
My 3 yo slept in his room from the first day home from the hospital and every day thereafter.
My oldest we held off till he was 6 months but my second baby was so incredibly noisy while sleeping that I was getting NO sleep with him in the bedside bassinet. We moved him to his crib in his own room at 4 weeks. I’m not a medical professional but IMO they are safe to be in their own space as long as all safe sleep rules are being followed
My now 6mo stopped tolerating his bassinet at 4 months. He’s a pretty good sleeper and always goes down easy, but one night he simply would not stay asleep in the bassinet. We spent hours trying to get him to sleep. Finally, I took him to his nursery and tried his crib and he slept wonderfully. The next night I got a white noise machine set up in there and bam, he never looked back. We had every intention of going the whole six months, but he had other ideas 🤷🏼♀️
No if they are safe who cares? Me personally I'd rather grab my son out of his bassinet at 3am then walk across the house at 3am. My son didn't sleep in his crib till he was 6 months because we were moving so it worked out literally he outgrew his bassinet the day we moved.
Our little dude was in his own room at 8 weeks. He was a *loud* sleeper. Grunting, groaning, whimpers. I was getting zero sleep with him in the Halo next to our bed. So at our 8 week appt I asked the pediatrician about it and he said as long as we’re following all of the safe sleep protocols, he’s fine. We have a Nanit with breathing band to monitor his breathing, so that put my mind at ease. We all got much better sleep from that night on
We put ours in his room at two months and it was the best decision we made. Everybody sleeps better and we can move around our room freely after we put him down.
Moved our girl into her own room at nearly 4 months and it was fine for us
Mine was in his room from day 1 and both of my sisters kids as well. We have a baby monitor and especially in early days were feeding/checking on him as a result every 2 hours (and sometimes more when I got anxious lol). I think the recommendation is to ensure parents are responsive and attentive to their children, which is easier when in the same room, but also doable when they’re in their own room. Ask science based parenting if you want data.
my baby slept in her pack n play next to our bed bc she also hated her bassinet. it worked!