SIDS Reduction Strategies

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is meaningful to me because it is preventable in many cases by implementing safe sleep practices and because I know four families who have been affected by this tragedy. 

According to the Iowa SIDS Foundation, “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden and unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant younger than one year of age.  SIDS is the unexpected death of an infant, which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including the performance of a complete autopsy, death scene investigation, and review of the medical history.  SIDS is known as a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning all other medical causes that may have contributed to baby's death have been examined and excluded. (Iowa SIDS Foundation, 2015)  According  to the CDC  approximately 3,500 infants die suddenly each year and approximately 24 % are due to improper sleep practices. (CDC, 2013)

The safe sleep practices are easy to implement, yet when parents are not getting sleep or caregivers are not successful in getting young children to sleep, many times they will revert back to practices that might have short term benefits of getting a child to sleep but they can in some cases kill a child.  Many people think that it is only a concern for babies under 6 or 12 months of age, but there are increasing numbers of sleep related deaths in older toddlers as well.  It is imperative that we spread the word about safe sleep.  It is especially for infants being placed in childcare, as a high percentage of SIDS deaths happen in the first day or week of child care.   Many times extended family will not understand the importance of following the safe sleep policies and will recall how, “their child slept just fine on their stomach”, this can intimidate new parents or caregivers.

            Safe sleep practices include: 1) Always placing children under 12 months  of age on their back to sleep on an approved sleep surface, not on a couch or in an adult bed; 2) Make sure there is a tight fitting sheet and no loose bedding; 3) Dress the child in only 1 additional layer than an lightly clothed adult might wear; 4) Keep the room temperature at 68-70 degrees so you don’t overheat the baby; 5) Do not let infants or toddlers sleep in car seats when they are not being transported; 6) Do not let infants or toddlers sleep in swings, bouncy seats, or other containment devices; 7) Share a room, not a bed with infants; 8) Once breastfeeding is established encourage the use of a pacifier when sleeping; 9) Decorate the room, not the bed (no bumper pads), toys or other loose materials; 10) No smoking around baby or in the environment they live in.

            This impacts my work as 3 of the 4 families I know personally, the babies died in child care and the providers I work with were the ones who had to make those calls to mom and dad and tell them that their baby was dead.  None of these childcare workers were purposefully doing something dangerous to harm the child, but yet they were.  One of my providers is now facing being charged with a felony and may be sent to prison because she let a child (17 months old) sleep in the car seat at the request of mom and that’s where they found him dead.  She is no longer allowed to operate her childcare business, may lose her home and almost lost custody of her own newborn because of this incident, it is a tragedy for both families.  I have been trained on safe sleep practices and am going to start training this in each of my three counties very soon.  Our state is making it a mandatory class for all childcare providers to take annually, because of the high number of SIDS deaths in childcare.

References:

CDC, 2013 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/Vitalstatsonline.htm, retrieved

November 1, 2015.

Iowa SIDS Foundation, 2015, http://www.iowasids.org/, retrieved November 1, 2015