In 1994, with added information from NICHD research, the NICHD, AAP, and other partners established the Back to Sleep campaign to educate parents, caregivers, and health care providers about reducing the risk of SIDS by placing infants on their backs or sides to sleep. The campaign timeline is familiar: In 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) began recommending that babies be placed on their backs or sides to sleep to help reduce the risk of SIDS. These warnings serve as timely reminders during this SIDS Awareness Month that although we have learned a great deal about SIDS-the sudden, unexplained death of an infant younger than one year of age-we still have more to learn.įor many people, the Institute’s relationship to SIDS focuses on the Back to Sleep campaign.
They didn't have to die.Recently the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned against the use of so-called "sleep positioner" products because of the dangers they pose to infants. But the majority of those who die from SUID had been bedsharing or had a blanket or a pillow while sleeping. "Most of the time, parents think that they're doing what's best for their baby. "It's very disheartening," says pediatrician Rachel Moon, M.D., of Children's National Medical Center, and a member of the AAP Task Force. In 2010, the most recent year for which stats are available, a total of 3,610 U.S. The other parts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, and sleep-related "ill-defined and unspecified" deaths. Doctors consider SIDS to be only one part of a category of accidental deaths called Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID). "An estimated 30,000 children are alive today because of Back to Sleep."Īs forensic teams are more closely examining the beds, bedrooms, and surfaces where babies have died, a devastating trend has emerged: Many deaths that once looked like SIDS are turning out to be accidents that could have been avoided. "It was one of the greatest public-health-education triumphs of the late-20th century," says neonatologist Michael Goodstein, M.D., a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The message got through: Within ten years, back-sleeping rates escalated and SIDS deaths dropped by more than half. initiated the Back to Sleep campaign to educate parents and caregivers. As a result of the findings, federal child-health agencies in the U.S. Belly- and side-sleeping also increase a baby's risk of rebreathing exhaled carbon dioxide. One reason for the decrease may be because babies retain more body heat when they lie on their belly, so they may sleep more deeply and have trouble waking if their face gets pressed against bedding. Then, research in Europe and Australia showed that putting babies to sleep on their back could reduce SIDS.
babies were dying each year of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.
It was a direct response to a crisis: As many as 6,000 U.S. Nearly two decades ago, the phrase "Back to Sleep" became part of the baby-care lingo for new parents.