Safe Sleep For Your Infant

Safe sleeping habits are critical for your infant. 

SIDS and other causes of sudden infant death still strike about 3,500 newborns every year. Parents need to be up-to-speed on the best tactics for safe sleeping and preventing SIDS in their babies.

New infant sleep guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stress that parents make sure their infants sleep alone on their back on a flat surface and not in bed with mom or dad.

In addition, the recommendations urge mothers to breastfeed and not to rely on special baby monitors to prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

What Is The Safest Way For My Baby To Sleep?

The safest way for your baby to sleep is on his or her back, laying on a crib with only a mattress and a fitted sheet. Always put your child to sleep on his or her back until one year of age, even if it's a short nap. This sleep position is safest for newborns.

Experts have long stressed that blankets, cushions, pillows, stuffed animals, toys and other bedding don’t belong in a crib. These items can block a child’s airway while sleeping.

“Keep stuffed animals and objects like that away from cribs,” said Marcia Cherry, MSN, RN, Director of NICU and Pediatric Care Center at Franciscan Health Lafayette. “Doing this prevents creating an environment where they can suffocate because when they are young, they don’t have that ability to get away from the material that could smother them.”

Placing babies in other areas than a crib may raise your child’s risk for SIDS and suffocation. These include chairs, adult beds, sofas and car seats. Avoid using infant seats, car seats, strollers, infant carriers and infant swings for routine sleep and daily naps. These may lead to obstruction of an infant's airway or suffocation.

This photo shows parents placing their baby in a safe sleep environment, in which the risks of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related causes of infant death are low. Baby is sleeping on its back on a firm sleep surface; and there are no crib bumpers, pillows, blankets, loose bedding, or toys are in the sleep area.

Room Sharing

Room sharing - keeping babies in sleep area in the same room where parents sleep - reduces the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death. If you bring your baby into your bed to breastfeed, make sure to put him or her back into a separate sleep area in your room when finished. Bed sharing or surface sharing (such as sleeping on a couch) with your baby is unsafe.

Always place cribs, bassinets and play yards in hazard-free areas with no dangling cords or wires to reduce the risk for strangulation.

Is Bed Sharing Linked To SIDS?

Avoid sharing a bed with your baby. Putting your baby in bed with you raises the risk for strangulation, suffocation, entrapment and SIDS.

Share your room instead of your bed with your baby. If possible, place your child’s crib in the same room, so you can more easily tend to his or her needs.

“It’s important that infants are sleeping in their own beds, but it is recommended that they sleep close to their parents bed, so room sharing not bed sharing, for at least the first 6 months,” Cherry said.

"Don’t fall asleep with infants laying on you. “The risk is that you may accidentally suffocate them and they can slip in between you or they can become entrapped or wedged between the seat cushions,” Cherry said. “If you’re tired, lay the baby down in their bed.”

The risk of infant death is up to 67 times higher when sleeping with someone on a couch or soft armchair or cushion, and 10 times higher when sleeping with someone tired or using sleeping pills or alcohol or illegal drugs or who smokes.

Bed sharing is not recommended for twins or other higher multiples.

Why Is It Safer For A Baby To Sleep On Their Back?

Back sleeping does not increase the risk of choking. In fact, babies may be better able to clear fluids when they are on their backs, possibly because of anatomy. When a baby is in the back sleeping position, the trachea lies on top of the esophagus. Anything regurgitated or refluxed from the esophagus must work against gravity to be aspirated into the trachea. When a baby is in the stomach sleeping position, anything regurgitated or refluxed will pool at the opening of the trachea, making it easier for the baby to aspirate or choke.

Why Does My Baby Need Tummy Time?

Give your baby plenty of “Tummy Time” when he or she is awake and when someone is watching. Supervised “Tummy Time” helps your baby's head, neck, and shoulder muscles get stronger and helps prevent flat spots on the baby's head. Have tummy time to allow babies to develop normally.

Safe to Sleep Video

This 60-second video is part of the Safe to Sleep campaign (formerly the Back to Sleep campaign), an effort to educate parents and caregivers about ways to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death. The video portrays what a safe sleep environment looks like and describes other ways to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death.

For more information, visit https://www.nichd.nih.gov.