Rise in Infant Suffocations Renews Debate On Bed-Sharing

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

Infant deaths blamed on accidental strangulation and suffocation in bed have increased sharply in the United States, federal health officials are reporting today, reigniting a heated debate over the rising number of parents who sleep with their babies.

An analysis of death certificates nationwide found that the rate of fatalities attributed to unintentional suffocation and strangulation in the first year of life quadrupled between 1984 and 2004.

While such tragedies remain relatively rare, and the study did not examine what is causing the increase, the trend roughly coincided with a sharp rise in bed-sharing, which has become more popular to help mothers bond and breast-feed. Such deaths can occur when a sleeping parent rolls on top of a baby, a pillow falls on an infant's face, a blanket gets wrapped around the child's neck or when the baby gets wedged between a mattress and a wall.

"There's been a huge increase in the reports of these deaths," said Carrie K. Shapiro-Mendoza of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who led the study being published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics. "The message for the public is that accidental suffocation and strangulation is potentially preventable by providing babies with a safe sleep environment."

Shapiro-Mendoza and her colleagues found that the rate of accidental strangulation and suffocation deaths increased from 2.8 to 12.5 per 100,000 live births during with the 20-year study period, increasing the number of deaths from 103 in 1984 to 513 in 2004.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

David

[Coexist]

1. whats the rate of babies who die in cribs/bouncy seats in comparison?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. I don't think the study looked into that.

[MichiganVote]

2. Incoming..........

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

3. I put my nomex underwear on before I posted.

[MichiganVote]

5. Breast feeding threads to follow in 5, 4, 3, 2....

[mainegreen]

6. When you sleep with the baby, you dont use pillows.

You puts side rails on the bed and you restrict blanket usage.

I bet crib deaths would go up too, if you put a baby in there with pillows and one crib wall removed.

Interesting study, misleading conclusion.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

9. The conclusion seems to be that bed sharing without proper training and information is dangerous.

[mainegreen]

10. That's the conclusion I would draw.

Strangely, that's not the conclusion being drawn.

Funniest thing after we had our son. The three doctors we saw did everything in their power to convince us bed sharing was tantamount to child abuse. Once they left the room, all the nurses would chime in about how the doctors were all a bit dramatic, and that bed sharing was healthy, natural and safe if we just followed certain easy steps. It was interesting.

We bed shared. Worked out great. We got far more sleep that way, and anyone who has kids know you sleep so lightly you would never squash your kid. Hell, I think I woke up every single time he snorted, burped or farted for the first year of his life.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

11. But people do suffocate their kids by rolling over on them, etc.

[mainegreen]

12. And kids die in their cribs as well

I imagine parents rolling over on their kids ranks slightly higher, and only slightly, than absolute nil.

And the benefits of co-sleeping are large. It would be interesting if a study cross related the reduction in death of infants in general for parents who co-sleep, and are therefore less tired, vs those who don't.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. I think you are wrong.

I have a good friend who was medical examiner of a large city. He felt that up to 90% of the "SIDS" deaths that involved co-sleeping were actually accidental suffocations. The article said that the deaths usually involved poorer, younger parents who co-slept not out of choice but for other reasons.

David

[mainegreen]

14. You think that co-sleeping must lead to increased suffocation

or that poor information and co-sleeping lead to accidental suffocation.

Because one is not an argument against co-sleeping.

Also, the general category of 'accidents' for infant death is much larger than co-sleeping SIDS death, even given your friends professional feeling of 90%. That might be around 500 deaths a year at the most outer extreme higher limit?

That leaves most SIDS deaths happening in cribs, by the way.

PS

I also have friends who are doctors who would disagree with your friend. They base that on feelings as well.

That's the problem with this one. It's an emotional issue with not enough facts to answer it in a clear cut way determining which way is surely better. We fall back on what we know and trust, that which has served us well.

In my family's case it's organic, hippie, touchy feely ways. Works well for us.

Cheers.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

15. I think co-sleeping can be done safely.

I think in the poorest of the poor communities that I work in it is done out of reasons other than choice by parents who are exhausted from working several jobs in an environment that is known to be extremely dangerous to infants. Those same parents are also much more likely to use drugs and or alcohol to help them sleep. I don't think anyone could possibly think that co-sleeping in that environment is a good idea, I dare say your doctor friends would agree with that.

David

[mainegreen]

16. I'd tend to agree.

But the poor really get the shaft all around when it comes to pregnancy, childbirth and healthcare.

I have a friend whose has had three open heart surgeries, all preventable, due to poor health care due to growing up poor.
Don't need a study to realize poverty is the biggest killer of children. Also, the most preventable killer of children.

Here's hoping health care reform for children gets passed at least.



Goodnight. I'm off to bed.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

17. Nice to come to some agreeable points.

You are right in regards to the poor. Night and take care.

David

[mopinko]

23. feel sorry for the parent that had to have this guy explain what happened to

their baby. sids parents go through enough. his "feelings" should have resulted in some research on his part.

having done this with 4 of my 5 kids, i do wonder what goes wrong sometimes. i wish the drug and alcohol thing could be sorted out a little better. i also wonder about parents with sleep disorders. i can see where something like bad apnea could lead to a parent who is sometimes too deeply asleep to sense where the baby is.

+1 to the old hippie thing. home births, co-sleeping, home schooling. we were downright uncivilized.
there are risks to everything. that's life.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

25. How many times have you done CPR on a kid with his mom begging you to not let them die?

In my 19 years in EMS I've never had one complaint. I've done a lot of research and been sent to classes on SIDS investigation. You are a moron if you think all co-sleeping is the same. The neighborhoods where I work, the projects where everyone is below the poverty line, most people have not one bit of knowledge about safe co-sleeping. All they know is that they just got done working 12 hours and the baby won't let them sleep and they had a couple of beers with a hydrocodone before bed so they get the baby put it in bed with them and their five pillows and 3 inch comforter and 5 hours later they call me because the babies not breathing anymore. Co-sleeping can be done safely, it's often not done safely in the poorer communities around this country. Being a prick and trying to squelch honest discourse is no way for a democrat to behave.

David

[mopinko]

26. had no intent to be a prick.

any snottiness was not aimed at you. it was aimed at one more doc who practiced his feelings instead of the science. dealt with a few too many of those in my day.
i had a friend who lost a baby to sids, back in the day when they were very reluctant to call it that. she was a young single mom. they put her through the ringer. i always thought that was about the most tragic thing imaginable- to loose a child, and then to be falsely accused of killing it.

i completely agree with you about the way everything seems to be worse for those that are struggling to survive. i did not mean to be flip. i honestly would like to know the extent to which drugs and alcohol impact the rate at which co-sleeping turns tragic.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

27. My sincere apologies then.

I thought you were referring to me as someone you wouldn't want breaking bad news to a family. I appreciate you clearing it up. You responded in a far better manner than I did and should be commended for it. The subject is a difficult one. As I said in another post a medical examiner I know told me that about 90% of the SIDS cases he saw while medical examiner were obviously accidental suffocation from co-sleeping. When you say that though all of the people that are educated about the subject think you are referring to people like themselves instead of the poorest of the poor and (I mean no offense here) the least educated and the least likely to get pre-natal care and familial support. I've met some great parents in very poor neighborhoods but many just don't have the capacity or the will. It's all about education, getting the most at risk people the education they need. Sorry for the confusion earlier.

David

[madrchsod]

7. 410 increase over 20 yrs?

[customerserviceguy]

8. It's the only time away from the kid that a full-time parent gets!

in the normal course of a day. If you start that, you will go through hell getting that child to sleep in his/her own bed someday when you're sick of having a six year old climb in with you.

Folks, enjoy your time with your partner in your bed, if you have one. If you don't have a partner, then figure you're not going to get one until that child leaves home, because there will likely be a jealousy issue when you finally do find someone to sleep with.

[pansypoo53219]

18. i have been told that as a baby,

i did not LIKE to lay on my back and insisted on sleeping on my stomach.
man i must have been a pushy baby. so much for rules.

[moc]

19. My guess is that this is confounded by increased household crowding.

(as an aside, I'm a public health professor who specialized in maternal and child health)

In a number of ways, human infants are meant to co-sleep with their caregiver. Co-sleeping is practiced in many cultures around the world (in both developed and developing countries) with no adverse effects on infant survival rates.

The data provided in the OP are not sufficient to determine the cause. However, I think it's wrong to conclude that co-sleeping is inherently unsafe. If you have an overcrowded household and insufficient beds for the number of household members, it's easy to see why this could be an issue. Given the increases in income inequality over the past 20 years, I'm not surprised by this trend. However, the root cause is socioeconomic, not co-sleeping.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

20. The study made no conclusion about co-sleeping.

I think that many of the cultures that practice co-sleeping have sleeping arrangements that are much safer for infants. Co-sleeping can be done safely, this study seems to indicate in that many instances it is not. The study also seems to indicate that it is much more prevalent in poorer communities.

David

[semillama]

21. We're actually going to be using a co-sleeper

so the baby is not in the actual bed with us, but will easily accessible for my wife to breast feed. Like some of the folks in the article stress, it's not the bed-sharing per se that is the ultimate cause, but rather how it is done. Done correctly, it may be the best way sleep arrangements for some folks.

[Orrex]

22. Both of my children are, let us say, violent sleepers

Any time my wife and I have let them sleep in the bed with us, they've kicked and stomped and pounded on us relentlessly through the night.


Those brutes!

[Nikia]

24. I was paranoid about sleeping with my son for this reason

When he wasn't sleeping well in his bassinet. We ended up buying an Arm's Reach cosleeper and we both get better sleep. He has his own separate space, but we easily see each other and it is easy to grab him for breast feeding. I was suprised that we could not find them in stores and ended up having to order online.