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 Ideally, babies should stay in their parents’ room at night for a
full year, according to recommendations released today by the
American Academy of Pediatrics.
Babies shouldn’t share a bed with parents, however, because that
increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the
guidelines stress. The safest spot for infant sleep is on a firm
surface such as a crib or bassinet without any soft bedding, bumpers
or pillows.
Sleeping in the same room, but not in the same bed, may reduce
babies’ risk of SIDS by up to 50 percent, said Dr. Lori
Feldman-Winter, a co-author of the AAP guidelines and pediatrics
researcher at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden,
New Jersey.
“Bed-sharing is potentially hazardous for SIDS, and this is most
important for infants under four months of age and those who were
premature or low birth weight,” Feldman-Winter added by email.
The new guidelines also encourage skin-to-skin contact as soon as
possible after birth to help prevent SIDS.
With cesarean deliveries, mothers can do this with their babies as
soon as they are awake and alert after surgery and, in the meantime,
fathers or other caregivers can provide skin-to-skin contact to
newborns.
Breastfeeding can also help prevent SIDS, but mothers still
shouldn’t sleep with babies in their beds to make nursing more
convenient in the middle of the night, according to the guidelines,
published in Pediatrics.
SIDS has become much less common in recent decades as doctors have
urged parents to put infants to sleep on their backs without pillows
or other soft bedding and toys that could pose a suffocation risk.
But it still remains a leading cause of infant mortality, killing
about 3,500 babies a year in the U.S. alone, according to the AAP.
These deaths can be caused by a variety of factors including brain
abnormalities or respiratory problems in babies as well as sleeping
face down on fluffy surfaces or surfaces that pose a risk of
suffocation.
“The majority of sleep-related infant deaths occur when babies are
sleeping on their stomach, or with soft bedding nearby, or when
bed-sharing with their mother, other caregiver or other family
members,” said Dr. Fern Hauck, a pediatrics researcher at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville who serves on the AAP task
force on SIDS.
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“The new guidelines emphasize the importance of placing infants on
their back for EVERY sleep, naptime or nighttime, at home, at
grandma's, at daycare and placing babies in a crib or bassinet with
a firm mattress, without pillows, soft/loose blankets, bumper pads,
or other soft objects, in mother's/parent's room close to her bed,”
Hauck added by email. “All of these steps will allow for open flow
of air to the baby.”
Roughly one in five sleep-related infant deaths occur outside the
home, according to a separate study published in Pediatrics.
Researchers examined data on almost 12,000 infant sleep-related
deaths from 2004 to 2014.
Compared to babies who died at home, infants who died outside the
home were more likely to be found sleeping on their stomachs or in a
stroller or car seat instead of a crib or bassinet, the study found.
They were also less likely to be with their parents.
“Parents often assume that when other people take care of their
infant, they also know about infant sleep safety. That is definitely
not true,” said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Colvin, a pediatrics
researcher at Children’s Mercy Kansas City.
“Parents need to make sure that everyone taking care of their baby
follows the A-B-Cs of safe sleep,” Colvin added by email. “Their
infant should always be placed to sleep ‘A’ Alone, with no bed
sharing or objects in the sleep area, ‘B’ on their back, and ‘C’ in
a crib or bassinet only.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2dCZeZx and http://bit.ly/2eyrkGA Pediatrics,
online October 24, 2016.
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