Over Half of US Infants Sleep in Potentially Hazardous Bedding

Abstract

Accidental suffocation deaths increased in the U.S. from 7 in every 100,000 live births in 2000 to 15.9 in 2010. TRENDS IN INFANT care practices can be identified by research that gives clinicians insight into caregiving practices and guides them in providing education on an individual as well as a community level. Beginning in 1993 studies have found that soft bedding under and over an infant increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sleep-related suffocation. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has identified the use of potentially hazardous bedding (e.g., pillows, quilts, comforters, loose bedding) as a modifiable risk factor for SIDs and sleep-related suffocation because soft objects and loose bedding can obstruct an infant's airway, posing a suffocation risk and increasing risk for SIDS. The risk was so substantial that in 1996 the AAP issued recommendations that infants be placed to sleep on firm sleep surfaces without any soft or loose bedding. A recently published study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the first study to report on the trends in infant sleep practices (sleep position and sleep location) in the U.S. (Shapiro-Mendoza et al., 2015). The study analyzed data from the National Infant Sleep Position report which surveyed nearly 19,000 caregivers about infant sleep practices between 1993 and 2010. There were several disturbing findings from the study. The study found that although the prevalence of infant bedding use declined over the study period, the rate of decline had slowed markedly— from 86% in 1993 to 1995 to 55% in 2008–2010 and that over half of U.S. infants still sleep in hazardous situations. The researchers also noted that although the rate of SIDS