For more information on sleep position for babies and reducing the risk of SIDS, contact the Back to Sleep campaign at: Safe Sleep Mail: 31 Center Drive, 31/2A32 Spread the Word! Bethesda, MD 20892 Phone: 1-800-505-CRIB (2742) Make sure everyone who cares for your baby Fax: (301) 496-7101 knows the Safe Sleep Top 10! Tell grandparents, For Your Web site: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/SIDS babysitters, childcare providers, and other caregivers to always place your baby on his or Back to Sleep campaign sponsors include: her back to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS. Eunice Kennedy Shriver Baby National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Babies who usually sleep on their backs but Maternal and Child Health Bureau/HRSA who are then placed on their stomachs, even for Reduce the Risk of Sudden American Academy of • First Candle/SIDS Alliance a nap, are at very high risk for SIDS—so every Association of SIDS and Mortality Programs sleep time counts! Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

NIH Pub. No. 05-5355 Enjoy Your Baby! November 2005

Partners in this outreach include: Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority • Chi Eta Phi Sorority Chicago Department of Public Health Congress of National Black Churches District of Columbia Department of Health National Association for the Advancement of Colored People National Black Child Development Institute If you use a , place the baby with feet at National Coalition of 100 Black Women the end of the crib. The blanket should reach no National Medical Association National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters higher than the baby’s chest. Tuck the ends of the Pampers Parenting Institute • Zeta Phi Beta Sorority blanket under the crib 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 on their backs. Placing your baby on his or her back to sleep is the number one way to reduce the risk of SIDS. Fast Facts About SIDS n SIDS is the leading cause of death in Q. But won’t my baby choke if he or she between 1 month and 1 year of age. sleeps on his or her back? A. No. Healthy babies automatically swallow or n Most SIDS deaths happen when babies are cough up fluids. There has been no increase in between 2 months and 4 months of age. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services choking or other problems for babies who sleep n African American babies are more than 2 times Na t i o n a l In s t i t u t e s o f He a l t h on their backs. as likely to die of SIDS as white babies. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 3 Keep soft objects, toys, and 9 Do not use home monitors to What is SIDS? loose out of your reduce the risk of SIDS. If you baby’s sleep area. Don’t use have questions about using monitors for SIDS stands for sudden infant death syndrome. , , , sheepskins, or other conditions talk to your health care This term describes the sudden, unexplained -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 spots will develop on your many babies who die of SIDS are found in their Do not allow smoking around baby’s head: provide “Tummy Time” cribs. But, cribs don’t cause SIDS. 4 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, where you and others sleep. Health care providers don’t know exactly what Your baby should not sleep in a causes SIDS, but they do know: or on a couch or armchair with adults

Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep. or other children, but he or she can Babies sleep safer on their sleep in the same room as you. If you Babies who sleep on their backs. bring your baby into bed with you stomachs are much more likely to to breastfeed, put him or her back die of SIDS than babies who sleep What Can I Do to Lower My in a separate sleep area, such as a on their backs. , crib, , or a bedside Sleep surface matters. Babies Baby’s Risk of SIDS? cosleeper ( that attaches to who sleep on or under soft Here are 10 ways that you and others who care an adult bed) when finished. bedding are more likely to die of for your baby can reduce the risk of SIDS. SIDS. 6 Think about using a clean, dry Babies Safe Sleep Top 10 pacifier when placing your Every sleep time counts. but don’t who usually sleep on their backs Always place your baby on infant down to sleep, force the baby to take it. (If you are but who are then placed on their 1 his or her back to sleep, for your baby, wait until stomachs, like for a nap, are at very naps and at night. The back sleep your child is 1 month old or is used to high risk for SIDS. So it’s important position is the safest, and every sleep breastfeeding before using a pacifier.) for everyone who cares for your time counts. baby to use the back sleep position Place your baby on a firm Do not let your baby overheat for naps and at night. 7 Dress your baby in 2 sleep surface, such as on a during sleep. light sleep clothing, and keep the room Communities across the nation safety-approved* crib mattress, at a temperature that is comfortable have made great progress in covered by a fitted sheet. Never for an adult. reducing SIDS! Since the Back place your baby to sleep on pillows, to Sleep campaign began in 1994, quilts, sheepskins, or other soft Your baby needs Tummy Time! Place the SIDS rate among African surfaces. 8 Avoid products that claim babies on their stomachs when they are awake Americans has declined by nearly to reduce the risk of SIDS and someone is watching. Tummy Time helps 50 percent. * For information on crib safety guidelines, because most have not been tested your baby’s head, neck, and shoulder muscles contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission at for effectiveness or safety. 1-800-638-2772 or http://www.cpsc.gov. get stronger and helps to prevent flat spots http://www.nichd.nih.gov/SIDS on the head.