230 SHARES Share Tweet

Every year in the U.S, approximately 3,500 infants die all of a sudden, from no apparent cause, according to the CDC. A majority of the deaths are considered SIDS — a spectacle that researchers still do not completely understand.

One factor that is clear is that a toddler’s sleeping environment is significant. Since the 1990s, both public health experts and doctors have recommended that parents should put toddlers to sleep only on their backs, place soft bedding outside the crib, and ensure that other “safe sleep” measures are followed.

The new study, which was published Aug. 15 in Pediatrics, recommends that the message isn’t getting through. “What we discovered was disquieting,” said Dr. Ian Paul, who is a Penn State College of Medicine professor of pediatrics in Hershey, Penn.

The past studies depended on surveying parents; this one made use of video cameras to note what parents were doing at home. (These videos were recorded with the parents’ consent.) It appeared that almost all parents place their babies with items in their crib, and this is a risk factor and increases the odds of SIDS – including loose bedding, pillows, and “bumper pads.”

From 14% to one-third of children were kept on their sides or bellies to sleep, instead on their backs. Paul stated that there could be some explanations. “One could be a lack of knowledge. One could be parents believing this [SIDS] will not happen to them. Then there’s a possibility that parents of infants are exhausted.”

The AAP advises against making use of products such as sleep positioners and bumper pads — because there isn’t evidence they safeguard babies, and can be a suffocation hazard.

The study included approximately 160 families who consented to have some video equipment set up where their babies slept. The recordings were done on three nights only, when babies were one month, three months and six months of age.