SIDS: Baby dies in portable bed, parents warn to others. Zara was just two months old when she went to sleep in a soft portable bed and never woke up.
When Carly Wowk held her baby’s blue and soft, limp body she screamed a sound she had never heard before. The 20-year-old had put little Zara down for an afternoon nap, but less than two hours later her precious girl had suffocated. “My partner started doing CPR and working on her on the floor,” Carly tells Kidspot. “I was screaming, I don’t know how to explain the noise coming out of my mouth, but I’ve never heard it before and never want to hear it again. “I was screaming and crying at the same time, with no tears.” Zara was just two months and five days old when she died on November 19, 2015 from asphyxiation - while sleeping in a bed that Carly wants taken off the market. Little Zara passed away at just two months of age. Bed-sharing in the absence of hazardous circumstances: is there a risk of sudden infant death syndrome? An analysis from two case-control studies c... - PubMed - NCBI. ISIS: Healthcare Professionals : Research Published Before 2005 - ISIS Online.
Carpenter et al. 2004.
Sudden unexplained infant death in 20 regions in Europe: case control study. Bedsharing and Formula Feeding. Copyright: Kirill Federspiel Sleeping with your baby is as old as human history.
It is a biological norm for our babies to want to be close to us (and for most of us, for us to be close to them). It is a practice that has been condemned in our current society, with fears of suffocation and SIDS leading the way, and most parents have been told flat-out to avoid it. However, the practice is increasing as more and more parents realize the benefits of sleeping close to baby and even some health authorities are started to provide more nuanced messages about safety and bedsharing[1].
Great, right? Yes, for a certain group of parents. The question we need to be asking is: Is it fair? For parents who are not breastfeeding for any reason, should we be telling them not to share that precious sleep time as well? Our DIY Co-Sleeping Crib. Bedsharing and SIDS: The Whole Truth. I recently posted an article on the do’s and don’ts of co-sleeping, an article I hoped would be helpful for those who want to co-sleep or bedshare with their baby.
I imagined the article would simply be a quick guide on some of the safety concerns that mothers need to be aware of that aren’t always obvious, and for some, the article seems to have done its job. However, it also had the effect of raising the ire of those who believe bedsharing can never be safe, drawing me into a debate I realize is more passionate than I had ever anticipated.
Let it be known that I bedshare and have since my daughter was first born. I intend to continue until she chooses to leave the bed. My Conversation With Co-Sleeping Expert James McKenna. Dr.
James J. McKenna is a professor of anthropology and the director of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame. He is a world-renowned expert on infant sleep — particularly the practice of bed sharing in relation to breastfeeding. Co-sleeping Safer Than Cribs Says SIDS Researcher James McKenna. Image © Flickr user tamakisono.
List of Publications // Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory // University of Notre Dame. There is no such thing as infant sleep, there is no such thing as breasfeeding, there breastsleeping.
Acta Pediatrica doi: 10.1111/apa.13161 Early version online. (refereed) Breastsleeping, Cosleeping and Breastfeeding. JJ McKenna. In : Overview Vol 20; 3: 1-5 A Women’s Health Bulletin from Olson Center For Women’s Health, University of Nebraska Medical School. The First President Of SIDS Foundation Says Bed Sharing Isn’t Dangerous. All parents want to be sure the sleep choices they make will keep their baby safe.
While SIDS is rare, it’s still a common fear of many parents, and understandably so. Not only is SIDS prevention a huge parental worry, it’s something many dedicated health professionals seek to prevent. Through research and community education, health professionals hope to reduce SIDS as much as possible, by helping parents make good decisions. Co-sleeping: Finding the confidence to say this is my choice and I’m happy with it. I share a bed with my baby and I have the injuries to prove it.
A dead arm from the weight of his golden, curly head. An aching side from lying in a protective C-shape around him all night. And the constant, flinty little chips in my maternal confidence from all the people who suck in their cheeks and tell me that I’m doing parenting wrong. My Conversation With Co-Sleeping Expert James McKenna. Bedsharing. Pediatric Politics: How Dire Warnings Against Infant Bed Sharing ‘Backfired’ Sundaykofax/flickr By Dr.
Melissa Bartick Guest Contributor. Co-Sleeping: Yes, No, Sometimes? Our first three babies were easy sleepers. We felt no need or desire to have them share our bed. Besides, I was a new member of the medical profession whose party line was that sleeping with babies was weird and even dangerous. Then along came our fourth child, Hayden, born in 1978, whose birth changed our lives and our attitudes about sleep. Co-Sleeping: Yes Were it not for Hayden, many of our books might never have been written. Soon after we ventured into this “daring” sleeping arrangement, I consulted baby books for advice. Co-sleeping – if you do it properly it IS safe - Muddling Along BlogMuddling Along Blog.
If you read the press, talk to your Health Visitor, talk to your parents, the chances are that everyone has told you that co-sleeping/bed sharing/sleep sharing/family bed is Not Safe and You Must Not Sleep With Your Baby. If you talk to parents in the real world, living real lives you’ll generally find that they have co-slept at some point or wish they could but don’t know how. If they have co-slept, generally they will tell you that it got them through and it meant they got more sleep. Most will have only given it a go through desperation after a multitude of broken nights. NorthumbriaGuidancetosupportsafessleepingpractices.pdf.
API_Infant_Sleep_Safety_Brochure.pdf. The Safe Sleep Seven - Breastfeeding Today. The remainder of Chapter 2 explores the details of each Safe Sleep Seven criteria, including the research and common sense behind them. Something to Sleep On Research on infant sleep risks, which we go over in depth in Chapter 19, shows again and again that the big risks of shared sleep are a mix of SIDS risks that affect vulnerable babies and breathing hazards that affect all babies: smoking, alcohol or drugs, risky surfaces like sofas, baby on his front (unless he’s on an adult’s chest), and formula-feeding. Combine two or more of those, and the risk can skyrocket. If you and your baby meet the requirements in the Safe Sleep Seven checklist, you’ve already eliminated all the biggest SIDS risks. And if you prepare your bed, then your baby’s overall nighttime risk becomes vanishingly small.
References 1 Ball, H. 2 U.S. 3 Imong, S. 4 Howel, D., Ball, H. 5 Moon, R. 6 Kendall-Tackett, K., Cong, Z., Hale, T. 7 Colson, E.