Many Parents not Practicing Safe Sleep Habits for their Infant

Statistics show that each year, 4,000 babies die from sleep-related deaths involving suffocation and strangulation in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Despite guidelines that infants should always be placed on their backs to sleep in a shared room with their parents but not in bed, the study found that SIDS or SUID ( sudden unexpected infant death) are more commonly seen in black people.

"We found that many infants are not placed to sleep on the back, and many still routinely share a bed during sleep," said lead author Eve Colson, M.D., professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, via a press release.

For their research, Colson and colleagues collected data from 1,276 mothers recruited from 32 hospitals throughout the country, which were chosen to provide a nationally representative sample of behavior. The participants were also required to work an in-depth survey about care practices for their child, including bed sharing and sleeping positions.

The results showed that 28 percent of Hispanic parents, 18 percent of black parents and 13 percent of white parents share a bed with their child. They also discovered that there was a higher risk for SIDS among black infants, who were more prone to stomach sleeping at 22 percent.

"The estimated national prevalence of bed sharing is quite high at 18.5%," Colson added, via a press release. "It is clear that more needs to be done to provide safe environments for all infants while they sleep."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting taking place May 3-6, 2014 in Vancouver, BC.