Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID), which includes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), is the leading cause of mortality in infancy.
Following safe sleep recommendations can prevent many SUID fatalities.
The rate of sleep-related infant death declined significantly in the 1990s after the American Academy of Pediatrics and others, including Health Canada, recommended that babies be placed on their backs to sleep.
However, rates have since plateaued; SIDS remains the leading cause of postneonatal death.
Proven sleep-related conditions that research from the APP suggests may in fact increase the risk of SIDS include:
- Sleeping on the stomach or side. Babies placed in these positions to sleep might have more trouble breathing than those placed on their backs.
- Sleeping on a soft surface. Lying face down on a fluffy comforter, a soft mattress or a waterbed can block an infant’s airway.
- Sharing a bed. The risk of SIDS rises if a baby sleeps in the same bed with parents, siblings or pets. But it may help if the infant sleeps in a separate bed in the same room with parents. That seems to lower the risk of SIDS.
- Overheating. Being too warm while sleeping can increase a baby’s risk of SIDS.
To help reduce the risk of sleep-related infant death, here are some of the AAP’s top recommendations:
- Place infants on their backs for sleep in their own sleep space with no other people.
- Use a crib, bassinet or portable play yard with a firm, flat mattress and a fitted sheet. Avoid sleep on a couch or armchair or in a seating device, like a swing or car safety seat (except while riding in the car).
- Keep loose blankets, pillows, stuffed toys, bumpers and other soft items out of the sleep space.
- Avoid smoking.
But what about products that claim to help reduce the risk of SIDS, by monitoring your baby’s breathing?
Parents are cautioned with regards to how much stock they put in products like video monitors with breath-detecting technology, and other products and monitoring devices that claim to reduce the risk of SIDS and tell parents the amount of healthy rest their child is getting.
Research suggests there is actually no proven benefit of these types of devices with regards to reducing the risk of SIDS or properly detecting a child’s amount of healthy sleep (which is what these products are marketed for!) In fact, the AAP actually points out that the only proven correlation between these devices and anything at all is an increased instance of heightened parental anxiety around sleep, and a reduction in parental sleep as a result. We, at The Happy Sleep Company, point parents to this information not to deter them from using the device if it’s what makes them most comfortable, only to illustrate that experts suggest it may in fact create more anxiety around sleep when baby is in fact getting good rest.
For more information on SUID and SIDS, visit the AAP’s website.
