Safer Child Products

You may have figured out by now that we are all about child safety. Since my husband Allen is a pediatrician, we have access to all the journals and AAP recommendations as they come out.  I just read the AAP’s latest statement on sleep.  I like that it encompassed all Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID), not ONLY SIDS. 

The AAP strongly recommends that infants sleep flat on their backs, with no pillow, no blanket, no bumpers or soft toys. These accessories are things that we, as adults, associate with sleep and comfort. It is not necessary, and can be dangerous for infants.  They should continue to sleep on their backs until 1 year of age or the time when they can roll themselves over and back again.

When my kids were that age, I had several friends who said the only way they could get their babies to sleep was to put them in the infant carrier.  I believe they even transitioned the carrier into the crib to familiarize their infant w/ the crib environment.  I even heard parents who let their babies sleep on their bellies for naptime, but at night, they laid them on their backs.  Nap time shouldn’t be any different than night time.  Sleep is sleep.

In October 17^th’s issue of Pediatrics, the policy statement entitled “Sleep and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Expansion of Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment” details 15 recommendations, and explanations for many of them, but how realistic are they in practice?  I understand that they want infants to sleep on their backs in the crib and not in car seats, swings, strollers or other “sitting devices”, but infants and young children spend so much of their time sleeping, are we supposed to wake them up every time they fall asleep in the car, or in the swing?  Some parents will drive around the block just to soothe their baby or get them to sleep.  Many babies find swings soothing and will nap in those as well.  Is the AAP suggesting that we don’t use swings?  We all want our children to be safe and the AAP makes many excellent points. The nice thing about the infant carrier is that we do not have to wake the baby to take them into the store.  With slings and cloth carriers the recommendations are to have the child’s head up above the fabric and not nestled against the adult’s body.  Again, I get it, but is that realistic with very young children? 

Go ahead and read the recommendations yourself and tell me what you think.  A lot of them make sense, and we all want our children to be safe, but how are you going to apply these to your real life?   http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/10/12/peds.2011-2284