Oct
02
2013

Safe Sleep for Baby

Posted by:  |  Category: Daily Learning

21

safe sleep for babyThis is a sponsored post from One2One Network and ICAN. All opinions stated are our own.

As parents we only want the best for our babies. We know that for the first few months of their lives they are delicate little beings and we want to make sure no harm reaches them. We take time to arranged their cribs with soft blankets, bumpers or teddy bears to create a comfortable and loving environment. But what if the place where we thought they are safest turned out to be a hazard?

Last week we were invited to a Safe Sleep for Baby event that left us shocked and grateful to be there so we could pass on the knowledge that was made available to us. Did you know that approximately 70 infants die from suffocation while sleeping every year in Los Angeles county? This represents one infant every five days!

What exactly is causing infants to suffocate while sleeping? The answer is bed-sharing and unsafe sleeping environments such as sleeping on a couch or having pillows, soft or excessive bedding and stuffed toys in a baby’s crib or bassinet.

Below we’ve put together a list of data that was shared with us and that we want to pass on to all our readers. It’s also data that will hopefully answer some questions and highlight the seriousness of this issue:

  • Bed-sharing and unsafe sleeping conditions accounted for 62% of all undetermined child deaths in L.A. county in 2011. 38% of those were due to bed-sharing and 24% were due to unsafe sleeping environments like those we mentioned above. 
  • The majority of bed-sharing and unsafe sleep child deaths were infants between 0-6 months of age.
  • For the first three to four months of life babies can only breathe through their nose.
  • A baby’s nose doesn’t have cartilage yet, so it can easily flatten and block airflow causing them to suffocate.

Some of this data might seem only logical and common sense, but the facts don’t lie. The truth is that families are still waking up to a tragedies that could have been easily avoided. That’s why we urge you to share and pass on this knowledge. If it can reach the ears of one person who was unaware of the dangers of unsafe sleep we could all be preventing a tragedy.

For more information please visit the Safe Sleep for Baby website and like them on Facebook.

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