I’m going to assume that unless you have a child of your own (or work with young children), you might not know a lot about safe sleep. I would be lying if I said that I myself was an expert on this topic. I got a request via Instagram to shed a little light on this particular topic. This post might come off as broad, but it is something that I want you guys to at least be familiar with before having children of your own.

I know that I have talked about SIDS on my blog before, but if you missed it, SIDS stands for Sudden Infants Death Syndrome. SIDS is exactly what it sounds like. It is when a seemingly healthy child under age 1 suddenly dies. Most of the time, this happens during sleep. 

Very young infants do not have control over their necks yet, so if they get into a position where they cannot breathe, they are unable to correct it, which leads to suffocation. As a mom, you will hear so many horror stories about this that you won’t be able to sleep at night. I’ve heard of a babysitter who brought a sleeping baby inside in it’s carseat and put the baby in a dark room while still in the carseat. Well, the baby’s head fell forward and he wasn’t strong enough to lift it back up, so he suffocated. 

I’ve heard of babies falling asleep in a rocker, and the parents aren’t paying close enough attention. The babies slipped and got their heads in a position where their noses were in the corner of the rocker and they suffocated. The list of horror stories go on and on.

The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) has so many guidelines on safe sleep, you wouldn’t believe it. I’m not going to pretend that I followed all of them strictly (my pediatrician sometimes gives us “AAP” answer and then the “experienced parent” answer when I ask questions). For example, the AAP says that until their first birthdays, babies should be sleeping on their backs and not their sides or stomachs. Well, once Hollings could lift up her head, roll over, and especially crawl (around 6 months) I would put her to sleep on her stomach (with my pediatrician’s blessing), because if she did get herself into a position where she couldn’t breathe, she could easily move herself out of it. 

I am going to list below some of the AAP guidelines with a little explanation as to why they decided it was best.

Only put children under 1 to sleep on their backs

If you put them to sleep on their sides or stomachs, they might roll into a position where their noses aren’t getting enough air flow, and if they are too young, they might not be strong enough to move themselves back into a safe position.

Use a firm infant mattress

If it’s too mushy, it could be harder for the baby to get air. You don’t want their noses to be sinking into the mushy material. Most crib mattresses these days come with an “infant” side and a “toddler” side. 

Room share

This does not mean “bed share”. While the AAP wants your children to be in your room for the first 6 months (and even preferably the first year), they should be in their own, safe infant bassinet. They do not want to sharing a bed with your infant. You could roll over on them, they could get wrapped up in the sheets, fall into a pillow, etc. and suffocate. 

Don’t let the baby sleep alone on a couch/chair

The baby could suffocate many ways on one of these (back of the chair/pillow/cushions/etc).

Don’t have anything in the crib other than a firm mattress and a tight fitted sheet

This includes pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, crib bumpers, lovies, etc. Hollings is 18 months old and still doesn’t sleep with anything in her cribs (except the occasional small blanket during nap time if I don’t think she’ll be warm enough in what she’s wearing).

There are many other guidelines that they have included on their website (swaddling your baby is okay, giving you baby a pacifier during nap time/bedtime can reduce risk of SIDS, etc.), but I feel like the ones I listed above were the really major ones. I got all of this information from HealthyChildren.org. 

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/sleep/Pages/A-Parents-Guide-to-Safe-Sleep.aspx

If before reading this post you had never heard of SIDS, or did not realize that safe sleep was so important for infants, hopefully you are leaving with new and helpful information. 

*Disclaimer, I am not an expert on this topic, and you should always always always consult your pediatrician when you have questions about safe sleep. The sole purpose of this post is to inform people that this is a serious topic that you should be aware of if you have a child or are considering having a child.