Babies are not easy, which mother Erica Stanley can attest. Her daughter Teegan is almost 6 months old.
“She was a really good sleeper when she was first born, but now she’s really restless,” Stanley said. “I’m up and down a lot, giving her a (pacifier), moving her around, making sure she is on her back, making sure she is comfortable and safe.”
The Stanleys have always done what they were taught — put a newborn to bed on their back. But even with years of research to show this is the safest position, many parents and caregivers are not getting the message, said Jessica Saunders, director of the Center for Child Health and Wellness at Dayton Children’s Hospital.
“Some of the challenges with getting the education out about the safe sleep practices is you’re really changing a culture,” Saunders said. “For a really long time, so parents that are grandparents now, they were told probably 30 years ago, to put their babies on their stomachs. … Science is telling us that’s no longer safe, you should be putting your baby on their back.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics study recently released found that only 33 percent of parents placed their newborns on their sides or backs. Also, when it came to hazardous items inside their babies’ cribs, more than 90 percent of parents failed.
For safe sleep, parents and caregivers need to know the ABCs of sleep: Alone, on the baby’s Back in a Crib.
“All you need in your crib is a firm mattress and a sheet,” Saunders said. “So I tell everybody all those bumper pads, blankets, stuffed animals — don’t put those things in a crib.”
For those worried about keeping their baby warm, dress the baby in warmer pajamas or purchase a sleep sack that wrap tightly around a baby. Any lose blankets, plush animals, pillows or bumper pads could cause a baby to suffocate, Saunders said. Another unsafe practice is when new parents allow their baby to sleep in their bed. Saunders said Dayton Children’s Hospital has seen cases where parents accidentally roll over onto their infants and smother them to death.
Most of the parents in the study were college graduates, a group researchers said they did not expect to have this many problems with safe sleeping practices.