New Guidelines to Prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Learn the updated American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations on how to protect your baby from SIDS.
Since 1992, when the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that all infants be placed on their backs to sleep, the incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has decreased by at least 50% in the U.S. However, since then, other causes of infant death during sleep have actually risen. These include suffocation, asphyxia, and entrapment. Why is that, you may be wondering? Well, there are many other ways in which we can endanger our babies, especially with what we place in their crib environment and what we expose them to.
Losing a baby is absolutely tragic. I don’t think there’s much more that can cause more pain and suffering to a family. And what’s worse, most of these instances are preventable.
So please take a few minutes to learn the latest AAP recommendations that were released in October of 2011 on how to prevent sleep related infant death. Making these simple changes can save your baby’s life.
How to Prevent Sleep-Related Infant Death
About 90% of SIDS occurs within the first 6 months of life, and the rates slowly decline until age 1. Research shows that taking some simple measures to create a safe sleeping and living environment can keep your baby safe during this crucial time period. Here I will summarize the AAP’s recently updated recommendations in my 12 Quick and Dirty Tips to decrease the risk infant death during sleep:
- Back to Sleep: Placing your baby on her back to sleep is not a new recommendation. Placing babies on their stomach or side has shown to decrease oxygenation to the brain, and also contributes to overheating (another risk factor for SIDS). Doctors recommend that you place your baby on her back, and not on her stomach or side to sleep.
- Don’t Pimp the Crib: It may be tempting to adorn the crib with cute plush toys, pretty pillows, loose blankets, cuddly quilts/comforters, or even those colorful bumper pads that almost all vendors sell in their crib sets. However, when it comes to the crib, less is more. All those extras are really just for us adults—the baby could care less. Placing any object inside the crib is a risk factor for suffocation or entrapment, and increases the risk of SIDS five-fold. Infants, unlike adults, require a firm sleep surface—so placing soft bedding to make baby more “comfortable” is an adult misperception. One option is to dress the baby in a wearable blanket, as long as it is appropriately sized. The crib should have nothing else but the following three layers: mattress, mattress pad, and a snug crib sheet. That’s it. The other benefit: no need to spend money on all the other, potentially dangerous frills.
- Select a Safe Sleep Vessel: Infants should sleep only in the crib, portable crib, play yard, or bassinet. Using a borrowed crib is not recommended since older cribs may not meet safety requirements. The mattress should be firm and must fit snugly into the sleeping vessel. Make sure to not exceed the manufacturer’s maximum weight limits of each product as your baby grows. Routinely putting your baby to sleep in a car seat, stroller, swing, bouncer, sling/carrier, or other sitting devices is not considered safe.
- Share a Room, Not a Bed: Infants should not be put to sleep in your bed. Sharing a sleep surface with the baby can cause strangulation, overheating, entrapment, or suffocation. Devices that promote bed-sharing as “safe,” such as in-bed co-sleepers, are also not recommended. Sharing a room is highly encouraged, however, but with the baby in his own appropriate sleeping surface close by the parents’ bed. In this way, you can monitor, bond, and comfort the baby, without unnecessary risk.
- Avoid Overheating and Head Covering: Make sure your baby’s room is well-ventilated and not over-heated. That being said, you don’t want to keep poor junior in a cold room either. Also, avoid covering your infant’s head or face in any way during sleep. If you swaddle your baby, make sure it’s not too tight or too loose, and that the fabric is a thin, breathable cotton. The swaddle should only cover from the shoulders down.
- Breastfeed Your Baby: Breastfeeding has shown to have a protective effect against SIDS, and if you can breastfeed your baby for at least the first 6-12 months of life, this is just one more benefit to add to the long list. Just remember to return your princess to her own royal crib if she falls asleep while breastfeeding. It can be too tempting for exhausted mothers to simply leave the baby in their bed after the feeding. But it’s a risk you don’t want to take.
- Use a Pacifier: Believe it or not, the use of a pacifier at naptime or bedtime may have a protective effect against the incidence of SIDS. However, it should not be introduced until breastfeeding is well-established, typically 4 weeks after birth, so that it does not interfere with the infant’s ability to latch and feed well. Also, never attach a pacifier to the infant in any way, as this is a strangulation hazard. And if it happens to fall out of your baby’s mouth during sleep, no need to reinsert it, as it is still considered to be protective even though it falls out. In order to avoid dental decay and ear infections, please discontinue pacifier use at age 1.
- Avoid Sleep Positioning Devices: Sleep positioning devices and wedges to keep the baby on her side or back are marketed for those infants with reflux and often claim that they decrease the risk of SIDS. However, this has not been found to be true, and in fact, they have been associated with suffocation and entrapment.
- Get Routine Prenatal Care: For unknown reasons, studies show that those women who obtain routine prenatal care have infants with less incidence of SIDS.
- Avoid Cigarette Smoke: Women who smoke during pregnancy, or expose their babies to cigarette smoke, have a much higher risk of SIDS. So you’re just going to have to tell Aunt Bertha that you can’t visit her with all that cigarette smoke permeating her home, whether it’s during your pregnancy or after.
- Avoid Alcohol and Illicit Drugs: Studies show that women who drink alcohol or use illicit drugs during their pregnancy and after delivery have infants with a higher risk of SIDS, along with a long list of other tragic effects.
- Immunize Your Baby: Multiple studies have shown that babies who receive their routine vaccinations may actually have a benefit over those who don’t in protecting against SIDS.
Don’t forget to join the House Call Doctor’s and pages, where you can read more of my medical tips!
Please note that all content here is strictly for informational purposes only. This content does not substitute any medical advice, and does not replace any medical judgment or reasoning by your own personal health provider. Please always seek a licensed physician in your area regarding all health related questions and issues.