Protect Your Baby From Suffocation by Feeding Him at Night on the Bed, Not on the Couch
Tiny babies love to wake their parents up in the middle of the night. They are simply programmed. And many sleep deprived parents, remembering that sharing a bed is risky, prefer to feed their children sitting on the couch. The new recommendation says that maybe the bed is better after all.
This American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendation is based on the observation that parents often fall asleep during night feeds. Couches are an extremely dangerous place for babies to sleep; they put babies at risk of developing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but they also expose children to simple suffocation. For example, a child might slip out of your hands and get stuck between the couch cushions.
Bed sharing is still not as safe as keeping a baby in his own crib in his bedroom, which is why AAP doesn’t exactly support that. But they say that if you tend to doze off while feeding, you should put your baby in the safest place you can. This could be your own bed.
For your bed to be a safe place, it must have a firm mattress and remove blankets, pillows, and other items. Lay the baby on her back and when you wake up, move her back to the crib. Here is the relevant paragraph from the new AAP guidelines for SIDS:
The safest place for an infant to sleep is a separate sleeping area for babies next to the parent’s bed. However, the AAP recognizes that parents often fall asleep while breastfeeding their infant. Evidence suggests that it is less dangerous to fall asleep with an infant in an adult bed than on a couch or armchair if a parent falls asleep. It is important to note that a large percentage of infants who die of SIDS find their head covered in bedding. Therefore, the bed should be free of pillows, sheets, blankets, or any other item that could obstruct the baby’s breathing or cause overheating. Parents should also follow the Safe Sleeping Guidelines elsewhere in this statement. Since there is evidence that the risk of bed-sharing is higher for longer durations if a parent falls asleep while nursing the infant in bed, the infant should be placed back on a separate sleeping surface as soon as the parent is awake.
Read the full recommendation, including other tips for preventing SIDS, at the link below.
SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths: Updated Safe Sleep Guidelines 2016 | American Academy of Pediatrics
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