Exactly how a baby sleeping in a crib should be situated have changed over time, and they’ve changed during the course of my five babies, the first of which was born in 2004. In 1992, the AAP started a campaign against SIDS which urged people to put their babies down on their backs. With my first child born 10 years ago, I was urged to alternate having him on his back and then on his sides to combat “flattened head syndrome.” With subsequent babies, the doctor urged me to only place them on their backs. But what about your question: in what area of the crib should a baby be situated? Well, I researched this and found one great article by the Cleveland Health Clinic that encourages parents to battle flattened head syndrome by switching the direction of the baby in the crib, moving mobiles around, and even moving the placement of the crib in a the baby’s room, the theory being that infants will orient their head toward light and that doing this will encourage the baby to turn his or her head in different ways to combat flattened head syndrome.
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Sunday, March 8, 2026