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It’s now recommended that infants be placed on their backs when sleeping, according to Regina Weir, immunization and childhood injury prevention coordinator, Safe Kids Metro KC.
Weir recently conducted several programs in Kansas City, Kan., for parents and caregivers, some of whom may be grandparents, that emphasized safe sleep practices for infants.
“We’re trying to raise awareness in Wyandotte County,” Weir said. “The more we can get done, the more we can lessen the gaps and improve the (infant mortality) rates.”
Weir said that Wyandotte County has one of the highest infant mortality rates. The high rates may be partially caused by prematurity, health anomalies and birth defects, but a large part of it is unsafe sleep practices, she said.
A lot of babies don’t have cribs, and Weir’s program recently gave foldable pack-and-play cribs to parents with a “safe sleep sack” and a sheet.
In the late 1990s, experts found it was safer for babies to sleep on their backs, with nothing in their cribs, Weir said.
“Once people started doing that, the incidence of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) started going down,” she said.
It was discovered then that some of the deaths attributed earlier to SIDS were actually suffocation from pillows or anything in the crib, she added.
Now, it is recommended that parents, grandparents and caregivers remove anything in the crib, including pillows, bumpers, blankets, teddy bears, and use a “sleep sack” instead of a blanket, she said.
