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We have two 7 month olds (10 month premies). One of the girls wants to turn on her belly during the night. She seems to like that better than sleeping on her back.
However, we heard that sudden infant deaths usually occur when babies are sleeping on their belly. So what should we do?
Both kids can turn themselves and are starting to crawl on all fours.
When they can roll over themselves, then it's ok to let them choose their own preferred sleeping position. Just be sure to use light-weight coverings, and when you put them to bed don't pull the covers up too far.
If you live in a cold climate, put more clothes on the babies, rather than heavier coverings.
At 7 months, it's safest if the babies can comfortably and safely move around on their own. It would be unsafe to try to restrict their movement to keep them on their backs, as it may simply cause them to get more tangled in the bedding while trying to move.
Just like with adults, older babies need to be able to move around in their sleep, to limit pressure on any particular part of their body. This isn't such an issue for small babies, as they're typically only sleeping for a few hours at a time. However for older children, when ideally you'll want them to be sleeping through the night, it is very important that they are able to move around.
One of my twins did the same thing at that age. Just put them to bed on their back and if they roll over, they roll over. Not much you can really do about it.
My youngest son slept on his belly and so did my oldest daughter. I just made sure there was no pillow or loose sheets were near their faces and only allowed them to do so when their cribs were close to my bed.
When my kids were small, accepted wisdom was that they should sleep on their stomach. This is one of those subjects where the advice keeps changing. Before they can roll over on their own, I would follow doctors advice, which currently is to lay them on their back. Once they are able to change position themselves, it would be quite inconvenient to monitor them all night and keep turning them over. As said above, don't restrict movement with tight coverings, make sure they are comfortable temperature-wise, and let them find their own sleep-position preferences.
