Stunning Kiddie Crib Dangers

A new study sheds light on a frightening fact — many parents are putting their children at risk of death simply because of the way they put them to bed. This is occurring even when parents have been educated about the risks.

Researchers from Penn State University used video recordings to see how parents put their babies to bed, filming the infants for one night each at one, three, and six months old. Their results were published in the journal Pediatrics.

“Most times the cause of death was the sleeping situation of the infant,” said one expert.

Many of the risks they found are directly linked to what many refer to as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

“Pediatricians talk about safe sleep positions during the newborn hospital stay. They are supposed to talk about it at every checkup through six months,” said Dr. Ian M. Paul, an author of the study. He’s also chief of the Division of Academic General Pediatrics and vice chairman of Clinical Affairs at Penn State College of Medicine, as Deseret News reported.

But when the researchers watched the videos, almost all of the babies had risk factors for sudden infant death, according to Paul.

[lz_bulleted_list title=”Why There’s Worry: Details of the Study” source=”http://www.desertnews.com”]Out of 160 one-month-old babies, 21 percent were put to bed on surfaces that were not recommended; 14 babies were poorly positioned.|Over 90 percent of the babies had loose items in the sleep area, including pillows and stuffed animals.|Almost 3 in 10 “changed sleep locations overnight with an increased likelihood of bed-sharings” and were not being put on their backs even at second location.|At three months, 10 percent of babies had parents who placed them on non-recommended surfaces.|18 percent were in the wrong position, and 87 percent had loose bedding and other unsafe items near them.|By six months old, 12 percent of infants still participating in the study slept on unsafe surfaces.|33 percent were positioned incorrectly, and 93 percent had loose bedding and other potentially dangerous items close to baby.[/lz_bulleted_list]

“We have called them SIDS babies, but we have a new name for them now,” Dr. Charles Shubin, director of pediatrics at Mercy FamilyCare in Baltimore, Maryland, and assistant professor of pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins University, told LifeZette.

“They’ve changed the name to SUDI — Sudden Unexpected Death in Infants,” continued Shubin. “How is it different? With SIDS, there is nothing that a parent or anyone else could have done to prevent the child from dying. Today, we do an adequate death-scene investigation — which we used not to do — and we find out most times that the cause of death was the sleeping situation of the infant.”

The videos in the new Penn State study show both bed-sharing and infants being placed on their sides or their stomachs at bedtime — despite a recent nationwide campaign by pediatricians that advises babies should always sleep on their backs.

“I’ve been practicing pediatrics for almost 50 years. When I started out the advice was opposite — put babies on their tummies so they won’t choke,” said Shubin. “So now a grandma or great-grandma tells the new mom, ‘Don’t listen to the doctor — we always put babies on their tummies.’ Tradition is a huge barrier to babies being put to bed correctly.”

The most common risk that the videos illuminated was babies put into cribs with loose bedding, bumper pads, positioners, and other items that increase danger, study author Paul said.

Related: In Search of Slumber for Sleepy Babies

“Those things that look so cute and comfy should be saved until the child is older,” said one Reading, Massachusetts, mom of an infant and a two-year-old. “I cringe when I see a baby crib stocked with stuffed animals and blankets. I always ask the parents if they pull everything out at night when baby goes in. It’s too important not to.”

The new study also found that babies often sleep in several different places over the course of the night. “When it happens, the second position is riskier than the first,” according to Paul.

[lz_infobox]The ABC’s of Bedtime for Baby are easy to remember, said Dr. Charles Shubin: “A” for putting baby to bed alone, “B” for placing a child on his back, and “C” for crib — not the adult bed.[/lz_infobox]

“The first form of SUDI is unsafe bedding, toys, and bumpers in bed with the child,” said Shubin, who is also a member of the Baltimore City Child Fatality Review team. “The other cause of SUDI is another person sleeping with the baby that suffocates the infant. People are in denial about this — insisting we now have breastfeeding recommendations that naturally put the baby in the bed with Mom for at least a few minutes at night. But the reality is, it’s risky. You risk killing your baby when he or she is in bed with you.”

Shubin recommends products like the Co-Sleeper Bassinet, which attaches to the parents’ bed. “You can breastfeed a baby in bed — the Co-Sleeper allows Mom to return the baby to a small crib right next to her. Mom can reach baby, nurse baby, and put baby back.”

The Co-Sleeper is expensive for some families, said Shubin. (A mini Co-Sleeper retails for about $175.) In Baltimore, however, each new parent who needs one is given a Pack ‘n’ Play for their new baby. “There’s no excuse not to have a safe space for baby to sleep,” he said.

Shubin says his review team deals with stories such as a tired mother who came home from work and took a nap with baby on the couch. Tragically, her arm pushed the baby’s face into the cushion, suffocating it. “We had one mother who twice slept with her baby this way, and lost them both to SUDI,” he said.

The babies have no findings as to cause of death in an autopsy, said Shubin. “Suffocation does not leave anything you can see, which is how SIDS as a syndrome developed. Then, we started looking at more than just the baby — the baby’s sleeping environment came under scrutiny, too.”

“We don’t like to admit that this is why most babies are dying,” said Shubin. “It’s from something entirely avoidable.”