Rise in infant suffocation tied to bed-sharing

Rise in infant suffocation tied to bed-sharing

www.msnbc.msn.com

updated 2 hours, 28 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Rates of sudden infant death from suffocation or strangulation have quadrupled in the past 20 years in the United States, most apparently from parents sleeping with their babies, government researchers reported on Monday.

Black male babies are the most affected but it is not clear why, the researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The trend is clear despite successful campaigns to prevent sudden infant death syndrome by putting babies to sleep on their backs instead of their tummies, the CDC reported in the journal Pediatrics.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm posting this because just from memory, I remember seeing old pictures of families packing 6+ people in studio spaces with shared bathrooms with other similar families.

As a youth, I remember a family with 13 kids in a small 3 bedroom rambler.

None of them "suffocated".


I feel that the MSM and Gov't periodically spout out these "tips" on hhow to live, raise kids, even how to do trivial daily tasks.

I guess this is the epiphany of being Dumbed Down.
As if we have no clue how to do anything without constant instruction, advice and reports like this that get stranger and lamer by the year.

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

We slept with all three of our children, until about age 1 1/2. None of them suffocated or got hurt.
I slept in the middle, to keep my husband from accidentally rolling over or hitting the babies in his sleep. With the bed pushed against the wall on 'our' side, to prevent rolling off.
I felt MORE at ease with them in our bed, although I usually slept very lightly, and with my arm around them.
I kept them covered up and content.
Our children never had colic or night-crying.
They slept through the night VERY early on!


edit to add:
I can't imagine having infants sleep in their own rooms away from the parents!
Is that teaching them dis-attachment from their Mother and Dad?

[edit on 26-1-2009 by Clearskies]

Originally posted by Clearskies
They slept through the night VERY early on!

In my dreams!! My son slept on my chest for the first few weeks, until he got too heavy, and then he slept, to put it bluntly, in my arm pit until he got too big to fit there too. However, he never slept for longer than 2 and half hours at a stretch until he was fourteen months old. The beauty of the situation was that since I breast fed, I only had to roll over, offer one or the other and then doze off (I too never slept deeply, a pin drop can still wake me up). Sometimes I'd wake up to find he'd found his own way, but never, ever did I get a straight night through. Oh but did I wish!!! To be honest I am still, five years and several months later, waiting. Sigh.

Originally posted by Clearskies
I can't imagine having infants sleep in their own rooms away from the parents!
Is that teaching them dis-attachment from their Mother and Dad?

I can't think of anything more natural than a mother and child sleeping together. I can't imagine it being any other way. The only danger arises if the mother (or father) has been drinking or using drugs, in such cases, if the parent falls in to too deep a sleep they may smother the child without realising. But, that, is common sense surely.

There was a case here in the UK when I was still breast feeding, where a new born died in hospital when the mother fell asleep while feeding her child. She had had difficulty breast feeding sat up, so the nurse had advised her to try it on her side. This led to advice that you should not feed while lying on your side, as I always found it the most comfortable way for me and my son I carried on. I even fell asleep sometimes. My son has lived to tell the tale. Freak accidents happen, but it seems when it applies to babies we all have to turn into obsessive compulsives when they do. It can take all the joy out of motherhood.

The worst thing about becoming a mother is the constant dogmatic instruction of what you should and shouldn't do. Sure some people do not have a clue, but does that mean we all have to have government guidelines sitting on our shoulders shaking their heads when we try solids before six months or cow's milk before twelve. It is a gulit-trip from beginning to end, you are given absolutely no credit for having any instinct for the job.

Against all guidelines, my son is more confident than his peers that slept in their cots, he is as fit as an ox, despite me ignoring the government guidelines on feeding. I'm knackered still but I'm hoping for a good nights sleep in a year or three

reply to post by imd12c4funn

As if we have no clue how to do anything without constant instruction

The problem though, is that many people are starting to require constant instruction. We are becoming a useless society. I am asked time and time again for parenting advice from mothers who are on their second or third kid, asif they forgot in the 2 or 3 years since their last baby on how to properly raise one.

My wife and I have three children, all of which she breastfed while lying down and have slept in our bed. While i can see some dangers to sleeping with your infant, it was an excellent bonding experience for the kids and their mother.

As for the government guidelines on raising children, the whole child care system is a complete train wreck and needs a serious overhaul and rethinking.

I too had the bed pushed to the wall and slept in the middle. A nursing mom has to feed a newborn every hour to two hours. I can't imagine it any other way. But I recognize it is not for everyone. The way you have to sleep is like a ninja.

I remember being amazed at myself in the beginning when I had my first born sleeping in the middle between my husband and I; I still slept with myarm wrapped around and between my baby and my husband. I will never forget being "asleep" and deflecting my husbands movements while he slept. He obviously didn't sleep like me and would nearly roll over onto the baby. But my mommy/ninja reflexes attacked(literally ) him in my sleep. This is when I pushed the bed into the corner. It was insane how I reacted while I slept.

But I have mommy friends who knew early on this was not for them nursing or not because of how deep they sleep. You add new baby exhaustion to that and I can see where things could go wrong.

This just makes me sad. To this day, despite mine being teens, I am still a light sleeper. We did family bed, and obviously mine did not suffocate either. I did not start the family bed til mine were six months or so though, up til then the crib was right by the bed, so I could see my baby.

I think if there is a kind of conspiracy with this babies suffocate in cosleeping situations, it would be the government discouraging of close bonding between child and parent. Everyone knows that the more you hold your babies, the more independent they become when they grow up. I can only think of bad reasons why this would be encouraged.

One to make it easier for the govt(aka our education system) to brainwash these kids for their entire formative years, and to make it easier to control our kids, because they will not be as bonded with their parents.

This is really stretching it though, because many loving bonding parents never cosleep.

[edit on 26-1-2009 by hotbakedtater]

i did, and still do the co-sleeping thing.
when i was married i literally kicked the other half out of the room.
enjoy the couch buddy.
just me and little one in bed so no worries.
i breast fed all my kids, and this made for a good nights sleep for both me and baby.
the only time i ever almost had an accident with one of my children, was when i was sitting up, in bed, and so tired that i fell asleep that way and the baby rolled off my arm onto the bed beside me. i immediately woke up, and never did it that way again.
one could argue that just as many kids die of sids in a crib, as happened to a good friend of mine when her son was 5 months old.
i think more accidents happen with cribs as well. some collapse, some people use ones that are too old and unsafe, some babies get caught between the bars, some suffocate because of bumperpads or stuffed toys, some pull down mobiles and get hurt, and others climb out and fall down.
i see my bed as much safer.

While I agree that most people never have a problem with co-sleeping and most babies are fine.... not all of them are. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against co-sleeping. While I don't necessarily agree with them... I think that co-sleeping can be done somewhat more safely than by simply plopping your baby into bed with you. I found a neat little article on it. 75% of infants deaths due to co-sleeping happened while the infants were under 3 months of age.

Anyway... here it is. I hope that it helps a bit.


Co Sleeping facts

i came acroos this thread last nite,,, my brother and gf just had a baby so we conversed about this a bit and i started googling

a study on sids,,,,,,it said arsenic and such,,used as a fire retardant ,,,,is causing sids and when a mattress is used twice,,,hand me downs the chance of sids is increased,,, because chemical is beat out of the matress more

i thought,,, i don't know if i buy that totally

however in new zealand,,a study of over 100,000,,, they wrapped the matresses is a nonbreathable wrap,,,,,guess what,,, not one death

so thAnx for making me learn something

From the original poster's article:

The data reflected this with sudden, unexpected infant deaths overall... 3,798 total.

If you find this infant death statistic shocking, how about this one?:

In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed

From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred

Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.

www.guttmacher.org...

[edit on 27-1-2009 by saint4God]

I think they are reaching here.. sure if you are a deep sleeper maby,
our lil one 10 months old has always slept with us, he gets the middle so he wont roll off, i could not imagine not having him there.. although the time is getting close to slowly ween him off.. but till then...
Sure there are dangers but unless you are a retard, you know what to look for and where to place them, and things are fine.
I think they are grasping for info to try to help distract from the important things.. like the mass riots that are coming in california, ohhh no no news about that at all...
Sure there are dangers having a little one in bed with you, but any real parent knows what to look for and adjust's...

reply to post by Clearskies


So did I, with all 5 babies, and we were all just fine. In fact, the communal bed is often recommended for easy access for feedings, and bonding. Since I don't think this trend is increasing, unless its due to breast feeding, and its suddenly increasing, I wonder what other circumstances were occurring.

[edit on 27-1-2009 by mystiq]

reply to post by saint4God


And, this is pertinent to this discussion, how??

There is a topic for this thread for a reason.

As for co-sleeping, I think whatever works best for baby and mom and what is most comfortable for them is what should be done.

reply to post by mystiq


I almost dropped my first baby when he slept with me at the hospital. I had been up as long as I could, because I was afraid of baby-snatchers, or them putting him under the light for jaundice, which has been linked to blindness in babies(That's what I heard, at least.)
The nurse rarely came to look in on us and I fell asleep with him on my lap, the next thing I knew, he almost fell off. He didn't though. Thank God.
It is SO natural (unless someone's drinking or drugs) to sleep with your child. The way everyone TOLD me to do it seemed UNNATURAL. "Let them cry it out", "Put them in their own bed"
"Don't nurse after 6 weeks", etc........Some people thought I was a little cuckoo (Inlaws, mostly)
Good for you!

reply to post by Clearskies


I don't have kids (I do good to keep plants and the dog alive ), but if I did, I don't think I could stand to have them in another room, "crying it out". I think it would break my heart.

I think that if the parents are comfortable with having their baby in bed with them, and as long as they are careful, it probably is what is best for mom (especially with breast feeding) and for baby (with bonding with both parents).

Originally posted by skeptic1
And, this is pertinent to this discussion, how??

Perspective. I lot of people seem to have a lot of compassion for things they can do little about and a complete disregard for things that they can do something about. A person can drown in 2 inches of water...so don't bathe? A person does not have to get an abortion. The result is the same - infant death. One is consciously avoidable, the other is accidental.

[edit on 29-1-2009 by saint4God]

I do think it depends on the parents "lifestyle". If the mother is out at a club drinking until 3 am, and comes home and sleeps with the baby, well, that is going to make a difference.

And I am sure these accidents have always happened, infants are fragile things. In the old days people just accepted it, some babies just died.

one of my niece's kids fell off a two story balcony and landed head first on the cement.

He was 5 at the time and had no breaks and no permanent pain, he now is fina as any little kid.

It may be luck, but kids have a way of absorbing quite a bit. I know I had my share in those days.


The mattress releasing arcenic is quite disturbing, and the wraping of, helping rid the sids problem is worthy of noting for sure.

I just don't buy some of these demographics.

The abortion numbers are staggering.
We received a letter back from Senator Murray regarding a letter requesting a no vote on FOCA explaining our interpretation of life and rights etc...
She says more Washingtonians are for the law.

It's hard for me to fathom this as accurate, but f so, I am disappointed, to say the least.

Originally posted by imd12c4funn
one of my niece's kids fell off a two story balcony and landed head first on the cement.

He was 5 at the time and had no breaks and no permanent pain, he now is fina as any little kid.

It may be luck, but kids have a way of absorbing quite a bit. I know I had my share in those days.

I wouldn't chalk that up to 'luck' or low probability but a miracle! I heard hysterics one night in college so I bolted out of my dorm room. My neighbor fell two stories, hit the grass-covered ground and nearly died. The paramedics said if it hadn't rained earlier he would've.