I don't really have anything to add about McTavishing, but do about babies and sleeping
When I had my first, and really with most things, I tend to use what seems to work best, common sense-wise. I was taught at the hospital to put my son on his tummy. Seemed to me, when he spit up, if he wasn't watched like a hawk, there was a danger of inhaling it. I listened to what they said at the hospital, on the back was bad, and it just seemed to me, he was more comfortable on his side. So that's what I did, bunched a blanket up, or something, and propped him on his side. Oh my goodness, what would the expects now say about that!
But, my Dad was notorius for rubbing whiskey on a baby's gums when they were teething too, and giving them a pickle, and all his kids got a glass of pop (in Ohio, soda in other places) before they went to bed.
Point? It's in my dna, a rule breaker!