If you leaf through your baby or parenting magazine you’d be sure to find one of those cute pictures of babies, pictures that will tug at any mommy’s heart. Unfortunately, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is not pleased with many of them. Not in the least, according to this US News report. Because most of the pictures, especially those of sleeping babies do not reflect the safety guidelines to prevent sudden infant death (SIDS) as recommended by the AAP. Great photos as they are, they nevertheless set a bad example to parents and care givers.

Baby Ad Inconsistencies in Regards to SIDS:

• Babies sleeping on their tummies. The AAP and other health organizations have been advocating the “Back to Sleep” campaign to prevent SIDS.

• Babies on soft surfaces. The AAP discourages the use of pillows and soft blankets to prevent suffocation and overheating. Overheating is another factor that causes SIDS.

• Babies co-sleeping with mommy. There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping Madonna and her child. The AAP doesn’t think so because it is strongly against co-sleeping even though many other groups advocate co-sleeping for the sake of mom-baby bonding and promoting breastfeeding.

• Babies co-sleeping with other babies. The picture of Jennifer Lopez’s twins Max and Em sleeping in the same crib was really a slap at AAP’s face. I have twins myself and I admit I never let them sleep in the same crib mainly for practical reasons – they slept better that way and were less likely to disturb each other when one wakes up. But I know twins who couldn’t sleep away from each other.

Clearly, there is a big difference between what is safe and what makes a good photo. From a photographer’s view for example babies may look cuter “bottoms up.” And ads are all about photos that are cute and appealing and nice to look at. Plus the artistic license, of course.

What do you think?

Do you think the AAP has the right to “police” baby photos in ads, print and web media for safety reasons?

In the last 10 weeks, four babies have died co-sleeping with their parents or grandparents in Milwaukee, and currently police are investigating a fifth death,  of a two-month-old baby boy who died in his mother’s bed on Sunday.

I started reading the news report wondering what could cause so many tragic deaths in such a short time. I’ve always thought that responsible co-sleeping is safe and various respected pediatricians (such as Dr. Sears) and child-care experts (such as Elizabeth Pantley) agree. So what could be happening in Milwaukee? Should other parents in Wisconsin be scared?

The mom of the latest baby to die admitted to police that she had been drinking at a wedding the night her baby died. The previous baby to die in Milwaukee was a six-week old boy. His mother also admitted to drinking before falling asleep with the baby in her bed. Then there was a three-month-old boy who died sleeping on the couch with his grandmother. His grandmother told police she had drunk eight beers that night. And before that, a six-day-old baby girl died sleeping on a couch with her mother. Her mom told police that she was drunk the night before. (Her daughter was SIX DAYS OLD.)

There was only one baby of the five whose caregiver wasn’t drinking on the night her baby died. I read to the end of the report and I want to cry for those babies and I just can’t imagine what their parents were thinking.

I still think co-sleeping is safe, but only if it’s done safely. Not being drunk has to be one of the top safety tips for co-sleeping. Sleeping on a couch with a baby also seems to put a baby at greater risk. 

I have never had a child die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). A co-worker of mine did though. SIDS is defined as the death of an otherwise healthy infant that can’t be attributed to any other cause.

I knew that our son was healthy, but the fact that he was still at risk for SIDS was slightly terrifying to me. I especially worried since his older brother was stillborn and I just did not want to lose another child. I researched SIDS and tried to do my best to lower the risk factors.

I made sure he slept on his back, I didn’t allow friends to smoke in our house, I made sure to not overdress him at night, and I let him sleep in a sleep sack instead of using blankets. I also gave him a pacifier at night because studies showed that pacifiers did lower the SIDS risk slightly.

A new study published in a health journal states that the use of a fan may also help to prevent deaths from SIDS. Researchers are quick to point out that further study needs to be done on the issue, but this seems to suggest that air circulation and ventilation are an important factor in preventing SIDS.

Experts agree that the best way to help prevent SIDS is to put babies to sleep on their backs. It is also important to make sure that your baby is sleeping on a firm mattress and that he or she is not overheated when sleeping.

The recent study was published in October’s Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. The study involved 500 infants from over 11 counties in California and was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

CPSC Focuses On Safety in the Nursery and Around the House for Baby Safety Month
Pillows Pose One of the Greatest Dangers Where Babies Sleep

WASHINGTON, D.C. ? As parents prepare for a new baby with love and care, CPSC urges keeping safety in the mix. One area of great concern for the CPSC is pillow use in cribs. The CPSC is urging all parents to forego putting any kind of pillows in the crib due to the high risk of suffocation and entrapment. The CPSC is aware of at least 47 infant deaths between January 2006 and May 2008 associated with pillow use in the sleeping environment. In the 16 years between January 1992 and May 2008, pillows and cushions have been associated with 531 infant deaths.

?Parents should be especially vigilant when preparing for a new baby,? said Acting Chairman Nancy Nord. ?Babies represent our most precious and vulnerable population.?
Nursery Safety

• To reduce the risk of SIDS and suffocation, place baby to sleep on his or her back in a crib that meets current safety standards.
• To prevent suffocation never use a pillow as a mattress for baby to sleep on or to prop baby?s head or neck.
• Infants can strangle to death if their bodies pass through gaps between loose components, broken slats and other parts of the crib and their head and neck become entrapped in the space.
  • Do not use old, broken or modified cribs.
  • Regularly tighten hardware to keep sides firm.
• Infants can suffocate in spaces between the sides of the crib and an ill fitting mattress; never allow a gap larger than two finger widths at any point between the sides of the crib and the mattress.
• Never place a crib near a window with blind or curtain cords; infants can strangle on the cords.

Safety Around the House

• Properly set up play yards according to manufacturers? directions. Only use the mattress provided with the play yard. Do not add extra mattresses, pillows or cushions to the play yard, which can cause a suffocation hazard for infants.
• Look for a toy chest that has a support that will hold the hinged lid open in any position in which it is placed or buy one with a detached lid or doors.
• Small Parts ? For children younger than age three, avoid toys with small parts, which can cause choking.
• Magnets ? For children younger than age eight, avoid building sets with small magnets. If magnets or pieces with magnets are swallowed, serious injuries and/or death can occur.
• Select toys to suit the age, abilities, skills and interest level of the intended child. Look for sturdy construction, such as tightly-secured eyes, noses and other potential small parts.
• For all children younger than age eight, avoid toys that have sharp edges and points.
• Verify that furniture is stable on its own. For added security, anchor to the floor or attach to a wall.
• Use outlet covers and outlet plates to help prevent electrocution.

CPSC encourages parents to routinely check toys and nursery products against CPSC recall lists and remove recalled products from your home. Sign-up for automatic e-mail recall notifications at www.cpsc.gov

It’s called sudden unexplained death in infants (SUDI), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), cot death, or crib death and it’s every mother’s worst nightmare.

About 35% of post-perinatal deaths is due to SIDS/SUDI. It has been linked to many factors including smoking and alcohol abuse by mothers, low birth rates, toxic gases, cold weather, and wrong sleeping conditions.

Last year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a USD 11 million dollars to the non-profit organization First Candle for a crib distribution program with the hope that better and safer cribs can prevent SIDS.

A recent study in the UK found high levels of the bacterial species Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli during autopsy of infants who died of unknown causes. These findings indicate that infection may be another piece of the puzzle that is SIDS.

The study:

Weber et al. Infection and sudden unexpected death in infancy: a systematic retrospective case review. The Lancet 2008 ; 371:1848-1853

A new report from the UK published today reminds us all about safe sleeping practices for babies. Babies who sleep with their faces covered are 27% more likely to die from SIDS or crib death, than those who sleep with their heads and faces uncovered.

It seems obvious. Actually, babies who die of SIDS usually don’t seem to have suffocated, and in most cases doctors are sadly mystified as to what happened, and don’t know why the baby stopped breathing.

Doctors speculate that it may be related to babies overheating. Overheating has long been known as a risk factor for SIDS, and a baby with his or her face or head covered is more likely to overheat.

It also may be related to the position that the baby sleeps in. A baby on his or her back can kick sheets or blankets off more easily than a baby on his or her front, especially a younger baby who can’t roll over yet. It reinforces the advice that babies sleeping on their backs are less at risk.

Wiggly, kicky, babies try their best every night to kick their sheets off, or wriggle underneath them. The safest thing a baby can sleep in, many experts agree, is a baby sleeping bag or sleepsack. There’s many adorable sleeping bags on the market – here’s a few of my favorite baby sleeping bags – many costing under $15.

If you don’t have a sleeping bag, put your baby to sleep with his or her feet against the foot of the crib (remember – feet to foot) and tuck the sheets or blanket in snugly under the mattress, and no higher than mid-chest. This makes it as difficult as possible for baby to wiggle down under, and harder to pull the sheets out and get tangled in them.

And always dress your baby appropriately for the temperature. Babies as a rule need the same amount of bedding we adults do, possibly slightly more, and perhaps a snug hat for newborns. Unless it’s very cold, babies just don’t need lots of layers.

Here’s more excellent advice to minimize the risk of SIDS for your baby.

Back to sleep, feet to foot, and sleep safe and sound, all our precious babies.

Like every mom, I worry about my baby when he’s sleeping. Is he too cold? too hot? is he comfortable? And nagging at the back of every mom’s mind is the worry of SIDS, or crib death.

The latest AAP recommendations of how to keep your baby safe while sleeping have dramatically reduced the number of deaths from SIDS, and following them will make it extremely unlikely your baby will be one of them.

The Angelcare BebeSounds nursery monitor is a movement-sensing pad that goes underneath a crib or bassinet mattress. The pad detects baby’s movements, and every breath they take, and if no movement (i.e. breaths) are detected for 20 seconds, a warning chirp beeps, then an alarm sounds.

It’s also a regular baby monitor, and available with one parent receiver, or two.

I bought one of these monitors to use with my newborn son. We had the occasional false alarm, when he rolled right to the edge of the crib, and when he woke up in the middle of the night and I forgot to turn it off after picking him up out of his crib.

Then one night, when he was about 4 months old, I woke up to the warning chirp. Half asleep, I was wondering what it was. Then the alarm went off. I ran to my son’s crib, and put my hand on his back. He wasn’t breathing. I rubbed his back. Nothing. I shook his arms. No response. I shook him and shouted his name. He took the most enormous inhale. I spent the rest of the night sitting up with him asleep in my arms. I’ve never been so terrified, and so relieved.

This device is not marketed as an anti-SIDS product, or a safety device, and they make no claims that it will prevent SIDS. Always follow all the recommendations from the AAP and use the monitor as a little extra peace-of-mind.

It retails for $80 for the dual monitor set and $66 for the single monitor receiver. Expensive for a baby monitor, but I truly believe this monitor it saved my son’s life, and I don’t believe I’ve ever spent a better $80.

Researchers at McMaster University have found that exposure to nicotine while the baby is still in the womb, whether because the mother was smoking or through secondhand smoke, compromises the baby’s ability to respond to oxygen deprivation which increases the chances of a baby falling victim to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

The birth supposedly triggers a baby’s oxygen-sensing mechanism, which remains active for several months after the birth, that allows a baby to react accordingly in occasions of apnea or asphyxia. Basically, the adrenal gland releases catecholamines which contains adrenaline, the building block of our ‘fight and flight’ response.

Exposure to even little amounts of nicotine compromises this mechanism resulting in babies born with a compromised ability to detect oxygen deprivation, unable therefore to respond accordingly by moving its head.

Resources:
Medical News Today

Before my first baby was born I was warned several times by other parents about the dangers of pacifiers. “Don’t let your baby get addicted to pacifiers,” they would warn in hushed tones. “You don’t want your child to head to kindergarten sucking on a pacifier, do you?” I didn’t know much about babies and their habits, but by the time I was ready to have my baby I was sufficiently warned that pacifiers were an inevitable addiction.

Here is what nobody told me: not all babies will take to pacifiers. I did try to give my daughter a pacifier once it became evident that she was treating my nipples as the pacifier, but lo and behold she spit the pacifier out and gave me a look as if to say, “Who do you think you’re kidding, Mom?” Other moms at playgroups would look at my daughter sans pacifier and tell me how lucky I was that she wasn’t hooked like their babies. Yes, it was great long term, but there were many times when my daughter was upset or resisting a nap when I really wished I could have popped a pacifier in her mouth to calm her down. To make things even more interesting, right around the time my daughter was a newborn the widespread acceptance of pacifiers as reducing the risk of SIDS became news. Suddenly pacifiers weren’t the enemy anymore, but my daughter still wanted nothing to do with them.

When my son was born we wasted no time in introducing a pacifier. He used one with gusto only once: after his circumcision. Every time thereafter it was the same familiar scenario…he would spit the pacifier out of his mouth and give me a quizzical look. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with weaning my kids off pacifiers, but believe me there were plenty of times when I wished they would have embraced that particular addiction.