More City Infants are Dying in Bed

JSOnline ^ | July 2, 2007 | Kawanza Newson

[Diana in Wisconsin]

(Unsafe sleep environments blamed)

The number of infants who died after being placed in an unsafe sleep environment has skyrocketed since December, Milwaukee health officials say.

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Bevan Baker called the trend "alarming" and a "crisis" that the city must address by rethinking how to tell people not to sleep in the bed with their babies and to always place them on their backs whenever they put them to sleep.

Baker says he understands that parenting is a tough job.

"Many of these families tell us that it was just a temporary lapse or that they just sat or laid the child down for a moment," he added. "But an unsafe sleep environment will affect any baby - no matter the race - and so the advice given to parents has to be continuously reinforced by the community and anyone who comes into contact with mom, dad and baby."

Each month the Pediatric Death Review team, which consists of about a dozen organizations throughout the city, meets to brainstorm over the cause of infant deaths and to identify prevention strategies. In some cases, final causes of deaths may be pending, said Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen.

During the June review, the Milwaukee Health Department says, the team noticed that there had been 18 deaths between December and May in which an unsafe sleeping environment may have been a contributing factor. Of the 18 cases, 16 infants were co-sleeping with an adult and / or a sibling at the time of death, they say.

Last year, there were nine deaths related to unsafe sleep environments during the same period.

Jentzen said the percentage of deaths in which co-sleeping is a factor has been steadily increasing and is now involved in about 80% of cases the team investigates. His office uses a doll to have families re-enact how the baby was found because it provides a concrete visualization of the scene, he said.

Despite efforts to decrease infant mortality in Milwaukee, babies born to African-American mothers continue to die at a greater rate than those born to white mothers. In January, the Fetal Infant Mortality Review Report found that the overall infant mortality rate for Milwaukee remained steady at 12 deaths per 1,000 live births from 2002-'04, but it found that the rate among blacks was significantly higher - 19.4 - in that period. About 81% of the citywide infant deaths were in 12 central-city ZIP codes.

The majority of the babies looked at during last month's team review were African-American and lived in three central city ZIP codes: 53206, 53212 and 53215.

The causes of death for these babies included entrapment and sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.

SIDS refers to those deaths that remain unexplained after all known causes have been ruled out through autopsy, investigation and medical history. It claims the lives of about 2,500 infants each year, according to the American SIDS Institute. Over the past 10 years, Wisconsin has had more than 1,000 confirmed cases.

According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the national SIDS rate has fallen almost 50% since the launch of the "Back to Sleep" campaign in 1994, which urges parents to put their infants to sleep on their backs, rather than on their stomachs. Parents have also been told to remove all soft bedding from the crib and to make sure the baby sleeps alone.

"There are many reasons why (co-sleeping) happens," said Anne Harvieux, program administrator for the Infant Death Center of Wisconsin, based at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa.

For example, some people may not agree that the baby should be put to sleep alone, while others might not have the money to buy a crib, she said.

And there are many myths to overcome, said Kathy Elertson, pediatric nurse educator for Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Joseph.

"To many, SIDS is considered crib death and people think that it is the crib causing the death," she said. "And we still have parents that say 'I'll put him in the bed with me and then I'll hear if something happens.'"

[Tired of Taxes]

Hi, nmh. :-)

This is an old thread, but I came across it searching for a different story. I don’t know what the experts say nowadays. But, I remember the “experts” telling us to take our babies to bed with us back in the mid-90’s. I remember doctors, nurses, and lactation consultants advising matter-of-factly: Lie down with your baby and nurse so you’ll get some rest, too.

In the hospital, the nurses and consultants would even show us how to position ourselves to nurse while lying next to a baby. The nurses in the last two hospitals let my babies sleep with me during the night. So, the professionals and experts saw nothing wrong with it.

Of course, what can happen when you do that is mama falling asleep with baby. But the hospitals didn’t seem to consider that a danger at all at that time. They were more concerned with baby falling off the bed, so they’d put the bed bar up. I guess they’re changing their advice now.

My husband and I kept a bassinet next to our bed, and we would pick our babies up when they wanted to nurse and put them back. But, we’d always end up falling asleep with them at some point during the night. I’ve never met a nursing mother who never fell asleep with her infant. Cosleeping with infants seems to be a product of breastfeeding.

The bottle-feeding moms I knew always had a good night’s sleep. Breastmilk is digested quickly, so infants nurse through the night. I’ve never met a mom with an exclusively-breastfed infant who slept at least 2-3 hours without crying during the night. If you were able to do it, kudos to you!

But, I have a strong suspicion there is much more to the story in these tragic cases. Notice that the article said: “an unsafe sleeping environment may have been a contributing factor.” That doesn’t sound so certain. It doesn’t mention the other factors. Just some food for thought.

[Dead Dog]

We were taught that it is the soft cushy pillows or bedding, their face lays in the crater that fills with C02 from their breathing. As long as they are sleeping on something firm enough not to leave a divit, they should be fine.

Once they can lift their head they were supposed to be safe enough not to worry about it, if they got low on Ox they would just move.