By Ready. Set. Grow!
Cribs that have drop-down sides can no longer be manufactured or sold because of new federal rules that take effect today. The Consumer Product Safety Commission outlawed cribs with the mechanism, finding that at least 32 infants have died since 2000 because they got caught in the gaps that can form between the side of the crib and the mattress.
Other ways to keep your sleeping baby safe:
- Your baby should always sleep on his or her back for naps and at night. The back sleep position is the safest. There is no increased risk of choking on vomit. Make sure anyone who takes care of your baby knows this.
- Keep your baby’s sleep area close to, but separate from, where you and others sleep. Your baby should not sleep in a bed or on a couch or chair with adults or other children. If you bring the baby to bed with you to breastfeed, return him or her to a separate sleep area – crib, bassinet or cradle.
- Place your baby on a firm sleep surface, such as on a safety-approved crib mattress covered by a fitted sheet. Never place your baby to sleep on a couch or on pillows, quilts, sheepskins or other soft surfaces.
- Keep soft objects, toys and loose bedding out of your baby’s sleep area. Don’t use pillows, blankets, quilts or pillow-like bumpers in a baby’s sleep area, and keep soft items away from the baby’s face.
- Never allow smoking around your baby. Don’t smoke before or after the birth of your baby, and don’t let others smoke around your baby.
- Never let your baby get overheated. Dress your baby in light sleep clothing and keep the room at a temperature that is comfortable for you. If needed, natural fiber blankets are best.
- Don’t use products just because they claim to prevent SIDS. No baby monitor or other device can prevent SIDS. If you have questions about the use of monitors for other conditions, talk to your health care provider.
- Provide “tummy time” by placing your baby on his or her stomach when your infant is awake and someone is watching. This reduces the possibility that flat spots will develop on a baby’s head and helps develop neck and stomach muscles.
- Be careful about breastfeeding in bed or in any situation where you may fall asleep with your baby while breastfeeding. Never take prescription medicine, drugs, or alcohol that might make you drowsy or impair your judgment when breastfeeding and always put your baby back in his or her own crib or bassinet before you fall asleep.
REMEMBER to share this information with everyone who cares for your baby including grandparents and other family members, friends and child care providers. Babies need to be kept safe at all times, even while they sleep! For more information about safe sleep practices for babies, talk to your baby’s doctor or call 1-888-First5LA (888-347-7855).
This information is included in a bilingual brochure, that you can see and download here, full of safe sleep tips for babies.
The information was brought to you by First 5 LA, which Ready. Set. Grow! is a part of, along with the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (ICAN), the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health Programs.
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Joy
April 24th, 2012
The information given here about never having your baby in your bed is merely the personal opinion of the author and not fact. Sharing a bed with your baby can be perfectly safe and has been shown to reduce the risk of SIDS, providing you follow the safety guidelines. For a more impartial view, here are two leaflets from UNICEF about sharing a bed with your baby: http://www.homestartwirral.co.uk/sharingbedleaflet.pdf
and http://www.mybirthbydesign.com/sharingbedleaflet.pdf
Do your research before reading the first thing you read about any parenting choices.
Joy
April 24th, 2012
The information given here about never having your baby in your bed is merely the personal opinion of the author and not fact. Sharing a bed with your baby can be perfectly safe and has been shown to reduce the risk of SIDS, providing you follow the safety guidelines. For a more impartial view, here are two leaflets from UNICEF about sharing a bed with your baby: http://www.homestartwirral.co.uk/sharingbedleaflet.pdf
and http://www.mybirthbydesign.com/sharingbedleaflet.pdf
Do your research before believing the first thing you read about any parenting choices.
Ingrid
April 25th, 2012
Agree with Joy.
NOT sleeping with your baby, while breastfeeding on demand, is exhausting, and makes nighttime feeds very stressful. Humans are meant to sleep with their babies! It regulates baby’s heartrate and breathing. I do not understand how one can advocate for breastfeeding and not for safe cosleeping (including bedsharing).
http://www.drmomma.org/2009/10/breastfeeding-bedsharing-still-useful.html?m=1
Knitted in the Womb
April 27th, 2012
“Be careful about breastfeeding in bed or in any situation where you may fall asleep with your baby while breastfeeding.”
Okay…so I can never nurse my baby at 3 a.m.–unless I stand up while I’m nursing, because I can fall asleep sitting in a chair. I’d be willing to bet after doing that for a while I’ll manage to fall asleep while standing up. I can never nurse my baby while sitting in church…because I have fallen asleep in church before. I can never nurse my baby in the middle of the afternoon in a rocking chair, because I’ve fallen asleep for an afternoon nap in a rocking chair before.
Can we get some more IMPRACTICAL advice? Parenting a newborn is TIRING. A mother, by necessity, will be nursing her newborn in situations where she might fall asleep. How about instead of telling her to do the impossible, we give her tips on how to make the reality of newborn parenting easier?
Truly the safest place for a tired mother to nurse her newborn is on a firm mattress with pillows and blankets kept away from the baby as the mother lays in bed-so that WHEN she falls asleep (not IF), her baby will not fall anywhere, and will not have suffocation hazards around.
“Never take prescription medicine, drugs, or alcohol that might make you drowsy or impair your judgment when breastfeeding”
But what if I need the medication for my health? And wait, are we really trotting out this old canard about how drinking any alcohol at all while breastfeeding is wrong, wrong, WRONG? Sigh. Why even bother to pretend to support breastfeeding if this is the kind of “advice” that is going to be given?
Anna
April 27th, 2012
Another vote here for safe bed-sharing.
I started doing it when I fell asleep in the middle of the night whilst sitting up breastfeeding my daughter on a chair…trying to follow the stupidly impractical (and dangerous) guidelines written by someone who has obviously never had to feed a newborn.
Breastfeeding makes you sleepy. Newborns make you tired from all the broken sleep. Telling someone to get up in the middle of the night in a dimly lit room and to stay awake for an hour long feed on a chair is just insane when they are already tired and have breastfeeding making them drowsy.
I thank god that nothing bad happened to her in that chair – it was far more dangerous having me accidentally fall asleep in a chair than it ever was purposely having her safely positioned in bed with me.