Is it good for a 3-year-old baby to sleep on their stomach? Firstly, whether for adults, children, or even young children, adopting a lying position for sleep is not beneficial to health. Especially for babies who are just 3 years old, their skeletal development is incomplete. Simply put, their bones are soft, and the support of their sternum and ribs is insufficient, which cannot provide sufficient protection for their internal organs, especially the chest organs such as the respiratory system and heart. Sleeping in a lying position can lead to poor breathing, which may affect the development of their respiratory organs and heart over time. So, sleeping in a supine position is not advisable. As parents, once discovered, it must be corrected immediately.
Is it good for a 3-year-old baby to sleep on their stomach?
Sleeping in a supine position gives babies a sense of security because the abdominal area of the human body lacks bone protection compared to the back, making it vulnerable to external injuries and more sensitive. This position is the most natural self-protection posture, so many babies are born to love sleeping on their stomach. In addition, when sleeping on the stomach, the contents of the stomach are less likely to flow into the esophagus and mouth, causing vomiting; Instead, it crawls into the small intestine, which is beneficial for digestion and absorption.
However, sleeping on the stomach can easily cause suffocation because the baby's head is heavy and the neck strength is insufficient. When they cannot turn their head or turn over freely, their mouth and nose are easily blocked by pillows, towels, etc., which can cause suffocation and even endanger their life. At the same time, the chest and abdomen are tightly attached to the bed, which makes it difficult to dissipate heat and can easily cause an increase in body temperature or eczema due to sweat accumulation in the chest and abdomen.
What is the correct sleeping position for a baby?
Before introducing the correct sleeping position, let's first understand two common sense concepts:
Firstly, the human spine has its unique physiological curvature, including cervical curvature and lumbar curvature.
Secondly, under normal circumstances, the muscles, tissues, and bones of the human body should avoid prolonged incorrect posture to prevent repetitive compression injuries.
On the basis of these two concepts, we introduce the concept of the correct sleeping position: the ideal sleeping position should maintain the normal physiological curvature of the spine and ensure natural relaxation of muscles throughout the body. So the correct sleeping positions should be supine and lateral. Among them, a pillow with a suitable height for the head and a certain curvature for the legs when lying down. When lying on the side, the head should be slightly backward from the shoulders, and the hips and knees should be slightly bent to maintain natural muscle relaxation.
In short, a baby's sleeping posture may not be fixed and can be alternated between supine and lateral positions, but it is advisable to avoid lying down, that is, "sleeping on your stomach". In order to ensure the best quality of sleep, parents can also comprehensively control the baby's bedtime, food and water intake before bedtime, and pre sleep exercise to avoid excessive mental excitement or digestive system fatigue before bedtime, which can lead to shallow sleep, and increase the duration of deep sleep to avoid frequent turning over after sleep, maintain the best sleeping posture, and allow the body to rest to the maximum extent.
