Safe Sleep for Your Baby

Spread the Word! Make sure everyone who cares for your baby knows the Safe Sleep Top 10! Tell grandparents, babysitters, childcare providers, and other caregivers to always place your baby on his or SAFE For more information on sleep position for babies and her back to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS. reducing the risk of SIDS, contact the Back to Sleep Babies who usually sleep on their backs but campaign at: who are then placed on their stomachs, even for Mail: 31 Center Drive, 31/2A32, Bethesda, MD 20892 Phone: 1-800-505-CRIB (2742) a nap, are at very high risk for SIDS—so every SLEEP FOR YOUR Fax: (301) 496-7101 sleep time counts! Web site: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/SIDS Reduce the Risk of Sudden Back to Sleep campaign sponsors include: Enjoy Your Baby! Infant Death Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Syndrome Child Health and Human Development Maternal and Child Health Bureau/HRSA (SIDS) American Academy of Pediatrics • First Candle/SIDS Alliance Association of SIDS and Infant Mortality Programs BABYBABY NIH Pub. No. 05-7040 If you use a blanket, place the baby with feet at the end November 2005 of the crib. The blanket should reach no higher than the baby’s chest. Tuck the ends of the blanket under the crib mattress to ensure safety. Babies Sleep Safest on Their Backs. One of the easiest ways to lower your baby’s risk of SIDS is to put him or her on the back to sleep, for naps and at night. Health care providers used to think that babies should sleep on their stomachs, but research now shows that babies are less likely to die of SIDS when they sleep Fast Facts About SIDS on their backs. Placing your baby on his or her n SIDS is the leading cause of death in infants back to sleep is the number one way to reduce between 1 month and 1 year of age. the risk of SIDS. n Most SIDS deaths happen when babies are between 2 months and 4 months of age. Q. But won’t my baby choke if he or she sleeps on his or her back? n African American babies are more than 2 A. No. Healthy babies automatically swallow or times as likely to die of SIDS as white babies. cough up fluids. There has been no increase in n American Indian/Alaska Native babies are U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES choking or other problems for babies who sleep nearly 3 times as likely to die of SIDS as NATIO N AL IN STITUTES OF HEALT H on their backs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child white babies. Health and Human Development 3 Keep soft objects, toys, and 9 Do not use home monitors to What is SIDS? loose bedding out of your reduce the risk of SIDS. If you Don’t use have questions about using monitors for SIDS stands for sudden infant death syndrome. baby’s sleep area. pillows, blankets, quilts, sheepskins, or other conditions talk to your health care This term describes the sudden, unexplained pillow-like crib bumpers in your baby’s provider. death of an infant younger than 1 year of age. sleep area, and keep all items away from your baby’s face. Reduce the chance that flat Some people call SIDS “crib death” because 10 many babies who die of SIDS are found in their spots will develop on your Do not allow smoking around provide “Tummy Time” cribs. But, cribs don’t cause SIDS. 4 baby’s head: your baby. Don’t smoke before or when your baby is awake and someone after the birth of your baby, and don’t is watching; change the direction that let others smoke around your baby. your baby lies in the crib from one week What Should I Know to the next; and avoid too much time in 5 Keep your baby’s sleep area car seats, carriers, and bouncers. About SIDS? close to, but separate from, Health care providers don’t know exactly what where you and others sleep. Your baby should not sleep in a bed causes SIDS, but they do know: or on a couch or armchair with adults Babies sleep safer on their Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep. or other children, but he or she can sleep in the same room as you. If you backs. Babies who sleep on their bring your baby into bed with you stomachs are much more likely to die to breastfeed, put him or her back of SIDS than babies who sleep on their What Can I Do to Lower My in a separate sleep area, such as a backs. bassinet, crib, cradle, or a bedside Sleep surface matters. Babies Baby’s Risk of SIDS? cosleeper (infant bed that attaches to who sleep on or under soft bedding Here are 10 ways that you and others who care an adult bed) when finished. are more likely to die of SIDS. for your baby can reduce the risk of SIDS. Every sleep time counts. Babies 6 Think about using a clean, dry who usually sleep on their backs Safe Sleep Top 10 pacifier when placing your but don’t but who are then placed on their Always place your baby on infant down to sleep, force the baby to take it. (If you are stomachs, like for a nap, are at very 1 his or her back to sleep, for breastfeeding your baby, wait until high risk for SIDS. So it’s important for naps and at night. The back your child is 1 month old or is used to everyone who cares for your baby to sleep position is the safest, and every breastfeeding before using a pacifier.) use the back sleep position for naps sleep time counts. and at night. Place your baby on a firm Do not let your baby overheat Communities across the nation 7 Dress your baby 2 sleep surface, such as on a during sleep. have made great progress in in light sleep clothing, and keep safety-approved* crib mattress, reducing SIDS! Since the Back to the room at a temperature that is covered by a fitted sheet. Never Sleep campaign began in 1994, the comfortable for an adult. place your baby to sleep on pillows, SIDS rate in the United States has quilts, sheepskins, or other soft Your baby needs Tummy Time! Place babies on declined by more than 50 percent. Avoid products that claim surfaces. 8 their stomachs when they are awake and someone to reduce the risk of SIDS is watching. Tummy Time helps your baby’s head, * For information on crib safety guidelines, contact because most have not been tested the Consumer Product Safety Commission at neck, and shoulder muscles get stronger and http://www.nichd.nih.gov/SIDS 1-800-638-2772 or http://www.cpsc.gov. for effectiveness or safety. helps to prevent flat spots on the head. .

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