Safe sleep for babies

MANY mothers like to keep their newborns in bed with them to bond and breastfeed. Now, after years of hedging about the wisdom of the practice, the American Academy of Pediatrics has said that sleeping in a bed with a baby can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

“Bed-sharing during sleep is hazardous,” says Dr. John Kattwinkel, chairman of the association’s task force on SIDS and a neonatologist at the University of Virginia. “We have strong evidence from 10 controlled studies showing this increases risk.”

Kattwinkel says an alternative is to keep the baby in a crib in the same room as the parents. This practice keeps the baby close for ease of breastfeeding. In releasing new guidelines for SIDS prevention, the task force also came out against side-sleeping, which research has shown increases the chances of the infant rolling onto his or her stomach, another risk factor.

It further recommended that an infant sleep with a pacifier. Research has shown this can reduce the risk of SIDS, though experts are unsure why. Parents should delay pacifier use for the first month, however, so that babies establish breastfeeding, and should not force infants who reject the pacifier.

The guidelines were released today at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference in Washington, D.C.