Best Practices on Infant Sleep Safety

In 1992, the AAP began recommending babies sleep on their backs to prevent suffocation and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Since this recommendation, the number of infant deaths has dropped more than 50 percent in the United States. Yet the number of infant deaths from suffocation or entrapment during sleep has increased.

Since 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has made several changes to its recommendations for safe sleep.

Recently, the AAP issued more specific recommendations for safer sleep, including eliminating positioning devices, such as wedges, from cribs, as well as bumper pads, although some retail stores still sell these.

Joining the show to discuss the new recommendations from the AAP to make babies as safe as possible in their sleep environment, is F. Sessions Cole, MD and Andrea Coverstone, MD.