Strollerderby
Parents Ignoring Back to Sleep Campaign
The Globe and Mail calls it new parents’ dirty little secret.
But is it really a secret that parents ignore the “experts” all the time? For that matter, is it all that dirty?
The article looks at a series of parents who have heard all the warnings against putting babies to sleep on their tummies . . . and are doing it anyway.
Just what are they ignoring? The Back to Sleep Campaign, launched in 1994 by the SIDS Alliance, American Academy of Pediatrics and sixty-some other organizations has been reported to have reduced SIDS deaths by at least fifty percent. In 2002 – less than a decade after the program became the mantra of pediatricians and maternity ward nurses – estimates said only fifteen percent of babies were being put to bed on their tummies at night.
SIDS remains the leading cause of death for kids one month to one year with a higher incidence among African American and Native American babies, although a portion of those deaths have been linked to other risk factors – including babies put to sleep on their sides (rather than the tummy OR the back) and infants placed in a crib with toys and blankets.
If the Back to Sleep Campaign sounds too good to be true (saving thousands of lives, woohoo), that’s because it is. As the Globe and Mail story highlights, not every baby sleeps on his or her back. And after night after sleepless night, parents need sleep too. So they place their kids in the swing (been there, done that). They use the bouncy seat. And sometimes they put the kids on their tummies.
Oh, the horrors.
I’m not belittling the efficacy of the Back to Sleep Campaign, but this is another example of a best practice that isn’t best for EVERYONE. Some kids don’t sleep on their backs. They scream, they cry, they throw their feet in the air and arch their backs because they are just too darned uncomfortable. Some of us sleep better on our stomachs, the pressure of the bed against them enough to relieve gas pressure (which we all know plenty of kids have – breastfed AND formual fed). The same goes for kids who slept best in the swing or the bouncy seat – at least for a few nights. The latter two aren’t practical overall, because kids do need to learn how to sleep in a bed (or at least on a floor) as constant movement is not something that can be sustained for the entire life. But stomach sleeping happens. Kids learn to roll over, kids find their own comfort zones.
Although there is a heightened risk of SIDS, a child sleeping on their stomach is not an instant death sentence. Want proof? You, me, and every kid who grew up in the sixties, seventies and eighties, BEFORE the Back to Sleep Campaign and lived to tell the tale.
Parents shouldn’t have to feel afraid when they tell their pediatrician that they’re changing things up a little – just as every child is different, the rules naturally have to change from kid to kid!
Maybe if these things weren’t considered “dirty little secrets,” parents and healthcare practitioners could work together more, against each other less.
Is there anything you’ve hidden from your pediatrician?
Image: Globe and Mail
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10 Comments
Kikiriki commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amMy daughter hated sleeping on her back, so we got an Amby (a baby hammock) and she slept like… well, like a baby, until she was old enough to transition to the crib at about 8 months. I would put her to sleep on her back and she’d roll over onto her tummy sometime during the night. I read somewhere that once they can do that, they’re basically probably going to be okay so I stopped worrying about it so much, and she’s fine.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWe did put our daughter to sleep on her back, until she got old enough to roll over and could get into a comfortable position on her own. I didn’t try to flip her over anymore then.
I did keep that we co-slept and rocked her to sleep until she was two from our ped. He would have had a fit.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI think the whle “no stuff in the crib” is equally important. My 7 month old now sleeps on her tummy in her crib, but on her back when she’s next to me (her choice, oddly). I think all the fluff in the crib is FAR more dangerous than the baby sleeping on his stomach. I was alarmed at the amount of blankets, pillows and floofy crib bumper in my nieces crib when I went to visit her.
My daughter (same age) slept in a sleep sack, next to me on her back. No blankets, and I had a tiny toddler-sized pillow for me, so no extra pillow stuffing to hang out. My niece slept on her belly, with a blanket and toys and a bumper, in a crib, on her belly, three rooms away from her parents. I’d venture to say my baby was at less risk of SIDS.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amMy youngest was born before the Back to Sleep campaign.
The middle son slept on his back until he learned how to roll halfway over. I spent about 3 nights rolling him back and waking him up. Then he would go back to sleep and roll back on his tummy, I’d get up and put him back on his back and wake him up (he slept in our room in a crib). When lack of sleep got the best of me, I called our doctor who said to leave him alone.
Our youngest spent time in the NICU on monitors on his stomach. When I questioned why he was on his stomach, a nurse told me “he sleeps best this way, but don’t do this when you take him home.” Yeah, thanks. After a month of him sleeping for 10 minutes on his back and then waking because he wasn’t comfortable, I put him on his tummy and sat next to his crib. He slept for 6 hours.
When I asked my doctor about it, he told me to make sure the bed was clear and my crib sheets were tight fitting.
The younger two still sleep on their tummies.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI agree with Mary and Renee. This is not a case of docs being overly cautious. Back to Sleep is one of the most successful public health interventions ever, right up there with erradicating polio.
Of course not every infant that sleeps a night on his/her stomach will die, just as Renee said, not every infant without a carseat will be killed in a crash.
While 50% is nothing to argue with (as a researcher 50% is an overwhelming affirmation), one of the greatest obstacles to Back to Sleep is cultural. My mother raised me this way and I was Ok, so my baby will be ok to. Even when all evidence points to life saving practices, it’s this logic that makes convincing the public so challenging.
smilesnsunshine commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI think this is an interesting debate because as I recall, there were more risk factors for SIDS than just stomach sleeping. Smoking parents, blankets and toys in the crib, and other things were all suspected of having an effect on the SIDS rate. While the Back to Sleep campaign has been effective, I imagine so has the decrease in the number of adult smokers and the larger number of parents keeping stuffed animals and blankets out of the crib.
On that note, tummy-sleeping is the thing I don’t tell the pediatrician about my daughter. She’s slept better that way since she learned how to bust out of the swaddle.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amNo, stomach sleeping is not an instant death sentence for every child. Sure, you and I “lived to tell the tale”, but think about the 61,882 infants from 1983-1994 who did not. That’s about 5,600 per year, compared to current rates of about 2,500 deaths per year. That translates to some 44,000 living infants, a direct result of the Back to Sleep campaign.
Putting infants down on their stomachs “sometimes” (as in, when parents are really tired) is no solution either. There’s substantial research to indicate that infants who usually sleep on their backs are at tremendously elevated risk if they’re then put down prone, even just once.
Stomach sleeping may be safer for some infants and more dangerous for others. At this point we don’t know who’s who. If you’re putting your child down on their stomach because they (or you) sleep better that way, do it with the full understanding of the potential risk involved.
I don’t get into a car accident every time I drive, in fact I haven’t had an accident in over 15 years. But I still put my son in a car seat.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 am“Although there is a heightened risk of SIDS, a child sleeping on their stomach is not an instant death sentence. Want proof? You, me, and every kid who grew up in the sixties, seventies and eighties, BEFORE the Back to Sleep Campaign and lived to tell the tale.”
Fair enough. Of course sleeping on your stomach as a baby isn’t a death sentence. But what about all of the kids from that era (like my neighbor across the street’s baby brother in ’75) who DIDN’T live to tell the tale? I don’t judge anyone who chooses to put their baby on his or her tummy to sleep as long as it’s an informed choice, but you can’t just say “well, we all slept on our tummies and we’re all fine!” because the fact of the matter is that not ALL of us are.
When I hear someone (often from my mother’s generation–she’s in her late 60s) say, “Oh, they put the baby on his back because they’re afraid of SIDS” with kind of a wink, as if it’s some kind of silly thing that we do these days because some alarmist doctor tells us to, it bothers me. You said it yourself in this article: 50 percent decrease in the incidence of crib death. Again, do what works for you, but how can anyone argue with that statistic?
As far as keeping something from the pediatrician…our pediatrician will never know how late our son goes to bed! (He’s seven, though, so he can sleep in whatever position he wants!)
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amMy refluxy preemie preferred his tummy because he got used to it in the NICU (where he was on monitors) and it aggravated the reflux less. So he often slept on his tummy on my chest, where his proximity to my breathing would help remind him to breathe.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amMy pediatrician thinks my 2.5 year old has given up her pacifier, when my daughter still uses it for naps and bedtime. It is, yet again, all about the sleep. Our doc would have had her give it up a year ago. She’s no paci addict, but it really helps her fall asleep, and gives her comfort in other stressful situations (she wore it non-stop when she had to be in the hospital for 5 days last month, for example, but that is the only time I remember when she used it during the day in the last 6 months or so).
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