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An article from Florida Sleeping with Parents Can Be Deadly for Babies was just sent to me (thanks Dawn!) and needs immediate attention. For one thing it makes no sense at all. For instance they say most of the deaths occur on couches. Yet they lump them in with ‘co-sleeping’. grrrrr. It makes my blood boil.

Here’s some glaring fallacies:

1. Briannah died of ‘co-sleeping’ , yet later in the article it’s stated that her house was ‘filthy’ and ‘unfit’ to live.
2.”For some parents it’s an issue where the parents want the warmth and contact, but it’s based on…the parent’s need, not the child’s need.”
3. “a lot of times these co-sleeping deaths are occurring on couches…”
4. many parents realize the dangers… but continue to do it anyway.
5. “…it’s a habit, when the baby is crying, they bring them into bed, it’s a convenience.”
6. “…in reality it’s very dangerous.”
7. “they were not using the right environment.”
8. “these deaths are preventable’.

those are just the ones that are glaring, but man, what a load of dung, huh?
I’ll let SingleDad respond…
The Ledger Forums He got a lot of his info from Babyreference.com cosleeping and sids fact sheet

While SIDS can be greatly reduced by breastfeeding, no one ever mentions this.

The Chicago Infant Mortality Study reveals that Breastfeeding Infants have 1/5th the Rate of SIDS. They report a nearly doubled SIDS rate for cosleeping, but this study does not remove the powerful effect of smoking parents from their statistic. When other studies remove this behavior, they find the remaining infants enjoy a greatly lower rate of SIDS for cosleeping versus isolated crib sleeping.There are two kinds of cosleeping, that conscious decision made by highly attentive parents, and that coming from factors such as fatigue from partying or drinking. When sofa sleeping and wedging dangers are also removed, the family bed shines as safest.

Number of U.S. births year 2000: 4,058,814

Total infant deaths year 2000: 28,411
Age birth to 1 year. (6.9 per thousand)

Number SIDS deaths year 2000: 2,523
Mostly in cribs.
Defined as death with unexplained cause, birth to 1 year.

Total suffocation deaths year 2000: 1,000

Number of crib-related “accidents”/yr: 50

Number of playpen-related deaths/yr: 16

Number deaths/yr attributed to overlying: 19 Most are only “suspected.”

Number of babies (0-2) dying in night fires/yr: 230 Many of which may have been retrievable if next to parent, not in another room of home. This is true for abductions and other night dangers as well.

Number of deaths/yr in adult beds reported as entrapment/suffocation between bed and wall, headboard, or other furniture, on waterbed, in headboard railings, or tangled in bedding: 18 With side-rail: 1 That’s 19 of the 60.

Number of deaths/yr reported as suffocation of unknown cause in adult bed: 13 These would be SIDS if in a crib. Remember, these do not necessarily involve cosleeping.

Number of deaths/yr in adult beds from prone sleeping: 5 Again, these are considered SIDS in cribs, and they are preventable in adult beds, as in cribs.

4/yr died not from falling out of adult bed, but from suffocating (pile of clothes, plastic bag) or other danger (such as drowning) after falling out.

13% of U.S. infants are routinely cosleeping with nearly 50% sharing bed for part of the nights. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 2000 Survey,

Number of U.S. infant lives that could be saved per year by exclusive/extended breastfeeding: 9,000 Exclusive/extended breastfeeding cuts SIDS risk and cuts overall infant death risk in half.

Why does our nation rank only 42nd in infant survival?* in the industrialized world (some non-reporting nations are thought to rank better than us as well)? Our difference from the best-ranking nations is a high predominance of formula feeding, isolated sleep, and medical intervention. The highest cosleeping/ breastfeeding nations rank with half our overall infant death rate (and negligable SIDS rates). Remember we rank #1 in medical intervention.

*(The ranking number is lowered by 6 by statisticians to adjust for an assumption that the U.S. has more live premature births, leading to more infant deaths. The statistical impact factor is only slight.)

Obviously we should all write a letter to complain about this stupid story. letters to the editor

and share them here, too!

Love,
Heather

ps. I Still have more calendars left!!!!!!!