Yes, and I'd put it more firmly than that: a settled sleeping baby should be left to sleep, and waking her to bring up a burst of air she may not even have is a poor trade, and I made it hundreds of times before anybody suggested otherwise.
This is one of the places where what I was taught and what the evidence supports have come apart, and where I've changed my own practice completely, which at my age isn't nothing.
If she falls asleep mid-feed
Which they do constantly in the first months, because feeding is warm and rhythmic and exhausting, and if I could fall asleep that easily I would.
Hold her upright against your chest for a minute or two while she sleeps, and don't pat, don't jiggle, don't talk. If a burp arrives it arrives, and if it doesn't, put her down on her back and let her sleep, and go and do the same yourself.
Don't wake her. Not by sitting her up, not by changing her nappy to rouse her, not by tickling her feet, all of which I was shown and all of which I did, and if she has trapped wind she'll wake within a few minutes and tell you, and you can deal with it then, which is a far better arrangement than waking every baby on the chance that one of them needed it.
But what about choking?
This is the fear underneath the question and it deserves a direct answer, because it frightens a great many people, it frightened me, and it isn't well founded.
A healthy baby sleeping on her back doesn't choke on milk she brings up. The anatomy protects her, the windpipe lies above the food pipe when she's on her back, so anything that comes up drains and is swallowed, and her gag and cough reflexes work perfectly well while she's asleep, which is more than can be said for mine.
The concern is often turned round the other way, into an argument for putting a baby on her front or her side to sleep, and that's exactly backwards, and it counts for more than anything else I could tell you. Side and front sleeping both have a higher risk of sudden infant death, and there's no compensating protection against choking, because the choking risk was never real to begin with. I'm not sure who first told me otherwise. Somebody in a maternity ward in 1985, I'd guess. On the back, for every sleep, naps included, whatever anybody tells you about wind — and whatever I told my own daughters before I knew better.
What not to do instead
Every item here is something sold or advised to help with wind at night, and none of them belongs in a cot.
- Never prop or incline the cot, or put anything under the mattress to raise the head. Inclined sleepers have been recalled after deaths, and a raised surface allows a baby to slide down into a position that compromises her airway.
- No pillows, no rolled towels, no wedges, no positioners of any kind.
- No sleeping on her front or her side, whatever the wind is doing.
- No car seat, bouncer or swing as a sleep place, since a young baby's head can fall forward far enough to obstruct her breathing.
- No sleeping on a sofa or in an armchair with an adult, which is the most dangerous arrangement there is.
- Nothing loose in the cot at all, flat, firm, clear, and on her back.
If reflux is part of the picture that's a conversation with a doctor, and it isn't a reason to change where or how she sleeps, and no safe-sleep body anywhere makes an exception for it.
Safe sleep, in full
Cutting down on the three o'clock version
The best way to spend less time winding at night is to put less air in during the feed, which is work done at the front end, in daylight, when you can see what you're doing.
- Feed her before she's frantic. A baby crying hard gulps air, and calming her first is faster than pressing on.
- Keep her upright or laid back during the feed and never flat, which slows everything down helpfully.
- For a bottle, keep the teat full of milk and hold the bottle horizontal so she sets the pace.
- Check the teat flow. Too fast and she gulps; too slow and she works hard and swallows air doing it.
- For the breast, a deep latch is what counts. Clicking, smacking or dimpled cheeks mean air is getting in and deserve having looked at in person.
- Then hold her upright for a minute afterward, in the dark, in silence, and put her down.
Read next
Where this comes from
- The Lullaby Trust: Safer sleep advice
- American Academy of Pediatrics: A Parent's Guide to Safe Sleep
- NHS: Reducing the risk of sudden infant death syndrome
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.