Your baby's sleep position, bedding, even the milk she drinks all have guidelines parents are supposed to follow. Here's how to make sense of them.

If you let your baby sleep on her stomach, are you risking her life? After hearing the 1994 recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that it's safer for babies to sleep on their backs or sides, many parents of infants who habitually sleep on their stomachs (and howl when turned over) worried they were harming their babies by letting them snooze facedown. Fortunately, insight into how pediatricians themselves interpret the official "rules" can offer reassuring guidelines for parents.

Here, what some of the most recent should's really mean to you and your family:

This recommendation was first made in the United States in 1992 when research from Australia and New Zealand showed a substantial reduction in the occurrence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) when babies sleep on their backs. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has made it again because so few American parents were following the advice.

According to the AAP, parents can cut the risk of SIDS in half by putting their babies to sleep on their backs or sides until they're old enough to be in control of their own position--meaning for the infant's first 4 to 6 months, which is when 80 percent of SIDS cases occur. For most babies, this isn't a problem, but what if yours happens to be one who cries all night until he's put on his stomach?

"In those situations, one solution would be to put the baby down on his stomach and then turn him over after he's asleep," says John Kattwinkel, M.D., F.A.A.P., chairman of the Task Force on Infant Position and SIDS for the AAP. "That solves most problems."

And if it doesn't solve yours? You needn't lose sleep so that your baby can get his. "We're talking about a statistical reduction in risk," says Dr. Kattwinkel. "This means that instead of your baby having a 1.5 per thousand chance of dying of SIDS, he now will have a .8 or .9 per thousand risk if he sleeps on his side or back during the first few months of life. The greatest likelihood is that your baby isn't going to succumb to SIDS no matter how he sleeps. We just can't tell yet which one or two babies in a thousand are truly at risk of dying from SIDS, so the best we can do is lower that risk for all babies."

Dr. Kattwinkel notes, however, that there's still a cultural bias that babies should sleep on their stomachs so they don't inadvertently spit up and choke. "Your mother and your grandmother might still tell you that," he says. "But with the rare exception of infants with certain jaw malformations and reflux (regurgitation) problems, research suggests that babies are safer sleeping on their backs during the first few months of life."

The American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Infant Position and SIDS has noted that soft bedding may be hazardous for infants. The theory here is that some babies have a delay in their brains' arousal mechanisms. That means that some babies don't arouse when their faces get nuzzled into a pocket of a quilt and they can suffocate. Also studied was whether the risk of SIDS increases when babies sleep on soft bedding--pillows, quilts, feather beds, and most notably, lamb's-wool rugs that were a fad a few years ago. Getting rid of soft underbedding is easy enough, but what about a quilt and those hand-embroidered pillows that decorate the crib? "During the infant's first year of life, I'd use those warm footed sleepers and put the baby on a sheeted mattress during the cold months," says John Kattwinkel, M.D., F.A.A.P., chairman of the task force. "We don't have any information about the risk of having a quilt over infants, but after a few months they move around a lot in the crib and could end up on top of the quilt after being tucked under it. The same goes for decorative pillows, which could find their way under a baby's face. I just wouldn't take the risk."

Most parents believe that cow's milk shouldn't be given to children under age 1, so it was a surprise when in 1992 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that toddlers start out on whole milk instead of skim or low-fat. After all, isn't the best diet one that's low in fat?

"Not for kids under two," explains John M. Udall, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.P., chief of nutrition and gastroenterology at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans. "These youngsters should have a diet unrestricted in fat for two reasons: They need the calories to meet their nutritional requirements, and they need the fat for brain and nervous system development."

Newborns should consume 100 to 120 calories per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of weight a day where adults need just 25 calories per kilogram. Infants have greater nutritional requirements because of their rapid rate of growth and their higher metabolism. Milk and milk products make up a large part of a toddler's diet (16 to 32 ounces a day for 2- to 3-year-olds, then 16 ounces a day up to age 5), and skim milk has only half of the calories of whole milk.

Experts also recommend against a drastic reduction in fat after age 2. "Don't switch from whole milk to skim milk overnight," warns Dr. Udall. "It's best to go through a transitional period of months to years, depending on the child." For instance, if your toddler is in the seventy-fifth percentile of height and the fortieth percentile of weight, perhaps you'd want to stick with whole milk products beyond her third year, depending on your pediatrician's advice.