Less Parents Putting Children "Back To Sleep"

A new study published in the current issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine shows that the number of parents placing their infants "back to sleep" have been diminishing since 2001. The Back To Sleep campaign was started in 1994 by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in an effort to reduce Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Putting infants to sleep on their backs (rather than their stomachs) reduces the risk of SIDS, which occurs most commonly between the ages of 2 to 4 months. Since the launch of the Back to Sleep campaign the number of babies placed on their backs to sleep jumped from 25% to about 70% and the SIDS rate declined by more than 50%. However, this trend has fallen off since the year 2001. Not only are more parents not educated about placing their babies on their backs (almost half of the mothers surveyed said they had received no advice at all from their physician or that he/she had recommended stomach sleeping), the study also shows that black mothers and caregivers are more likely than whites to place infants on their stomachs to sleep. The take-home message? Physicians need to be more proactive in educating parents and caretakers and we, as individuals, need to be proactive about educating our friends and families.

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