Some of you may have already heard about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS, the condition that describes the sudden, unexplained passing of an infant who is less than a year old. Other people call SIDS “crib death” because many babies who die of SIDS are found in their cribs. The exact causes of SIDS are not established yet but two of the possible reasons are suffocation and inhalation of exhaled air. Fortunately, more and more people have become aware of this problem and so parents everywhere are learning about the safest sleeping position for their baby.

Let your baby sleep on his back

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, one of the best ways to lower your baby’s risk of SIDS is to put him on the back to sleep, both for naps and at nighttime. Before, health care providers believed that babies should sleep on their stomach, but subsequent studies have shown that babies are more likely to die of SIDS when they are placed face down. One of the hypotheses is that babies could suffocate or could inhale the carbon dioxide they exhale when their faces are accidentally covered by the mattress. To educate parents about the dangers of SIDS and of letting babies sleep on their stomachs, the US government and several medical, professional and civic organizations started the Back to Sleep campaign in 1994. Since then, the number of SIDS cases in the United States has declined by an amazing 50 percent.

Additional tips

• Don’t worry about your baby choking if he sleeps on his back. Normal, healthy infants will automatically swallow or cough up fluids from their mouth.

• Choose a sleep surface that is firm, flat and bare. Babies who sleep on or beneath soft bedding are at a higher risk of dying of SIDS. Use baby sleeping sacks instead of blankets and don’t put pillows and stuffed animals on your baby’s bed.

• Babies who usually sleep on their backs at night but are then placed on their stomachs for naps are at a very high risk for SIDS. Let your baby sleep on his back all of the time. No exceptions.

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