Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of nonprone (supine or side) versus prone sleeping position in healthy preterm infants.
Study design: A questionnaire on sleeping position was mailed to mothers of 167 preterm infants discharged from the intermediate nursery at Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. The prevalence of nonprone sleeping at 1 month (term corrected age) and 3 months (2 months corrected age) after nursery discharge was analyzed by an unpaired t test.
Results: Nonprone position sleeping occurred in 64% initially and dropped to 35% at 2 months corrected age.
Conclusions: Overall, nonprone sleeping was widespread in our healthy preterm infants after hospital discharge but may not persist. A majority of these infants were sleeping prone during a high-risk period for sudden infant death syndrome.