According to 2014 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, approximately 3,500 infants die each year from sleep-related causes of infant death including Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and accidental suffocation. While a specific cause or causes of SIDS—or definitive ways to prevent it—are unknown, there is evidence on ways to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death. Using this evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Sudden Infant Death recently released updated safe infant sleep recommendations, titled “
SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2016 Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment.”
The report includes 19 recommendations related to a safe sleep environment, breastfeeding, and prenatal and postpartum care and exposures, as well as recommendations specifically for health policymakers, researchers, health care professionals, infant care providers, and manufacturers. The task force added information about swaddling, skin-to-skin care, and room sharing, as well as recommending that a mother not feed her baby on a sofa or cushioned chair if there is a risk that she could fall asleep.
The task force also recommends continuing the Safe to Sleep® campaign, which IQ Solutions supported for a number of years. We collaborated with the
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to implement a national-level outreach strategy to educate health care providers and caregivers about safe infant sleep and forged a national partnership with Kappa Alpha Psi, a national multicultural fraternity, to assist their organization in conducting community outreach programs that emphasized the important role fathers and grandfathers have in reducing the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death. IQ Solutions also supported state-based efforts and managed mini-grants and provision of technical assistance to local organizations and community groups in Arkansas and Alabama, and conducted community-based training on safe infant sleep in states with the highest rates of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death. IQ Solutions continues to support the NICHD Information Resource Center.
For More Information About SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Causes of Infant Death
Note: Subject Matter Expertise provided by Rachael Picard.
