Letting babies sleep in soft bedding? You're doing it wrong, according to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that babies should be put to sleep on firm surfaces, lying on their backs and away from soft objects like bumpers, blankets and pillows. The same recommendations are provided by the National Institutes of Health's Safe to Sleep program, but more than half of parents in the United States still put their little children to sleep with soft, loose bedding.
"The danger is that thick blankets, quilt or pillows can obstruct the baby's airway, which would keep them from being able to breathe. Parents are really well intentioned. They want to provide warmth and comfort to the baby, but all the baby really needs is infant sleep clothing," said Carrie Shapiro-Mendoza, a senior scientist from the CDC Division of Reproductive Health and lead author for the study.
However, it can be tricky for parents because they see images in media where babies are surrounded by soft bedding, pillows and blankets, reinforcing the idea that these are safe to use around infants.
For the study, Shapiro-Mendoza and colleagues used data from children eight months old and younger between 1993 and 2010 as a part of the National Infant Sleep Position Study. According to findings, around 86 percent of parents said they used loose bedding when putting babies to sleep from 1993 to 1995. That number fell to 55 percent from 2008 to 2010. Additionally, researchers found that mothers who didn't graduate from high school and teenage mothers were the likeliest to use soft, loose bedding.
Recommendations for safe sleeping in infants were first provided in the 1990s. According to the CDC researchers, from 2000 to 2010, the rate for sudden infant death syndrome declined. However, cases of sleep-related suffocation grew more than 50 percent, starting with 7 cases per 100,000 babies born to around 16 for every 100,000.
According to a different study, one in every eight deaths in infants that are sleep-related happens when a baby sleeps on a sofa.
Shapiro-Mendoza reiterated that the best place for a baby to sleep is on a firm mattress with fitted sheets. Parents also need not use blankets when the right sleep clothing is used because the clothes should be able to keep the infant sufficiently warm. Not to mention infant sleep clothing doesn't pose the risk of entanglement.
