Baby is one out of the cardboard box
Cardboard boxes certainly aren’t new technology. But when they’re linked to a practice that started in Finland decades ago to help babies sleep safely, they’re taking on a new purpose as so-called baby boxes make their way to the US.
Parents are beginning to take baby boxes home from hospitals with their newborns.
A Los Angeles-based company has partnered with health officials to give the boxes away for free and an online initiative offers advice aimed at reducing sudden unexpected infant deaths. New Jersey and Ohio were the first to participate statewide in the programme.
“To new [mothers]: (SUID) was one of my biggest fears and then it happened,” said 35-year-old Chauntia Williams, of Maple Heights, Ohio.
Williams is an advocate for safe sleeping and the boxes after she unexpectedly lost her 33-day-old daughter Aaliyah nine years ago. Williams said her daughter went to sleep in a crib with cushiony bumpers, stuffed animals and an added blanket beneath the fitted sheet and never woke up. She said the coroner determined the bedding caused the death.
She now uses a box with her son, Bryce, though he’s getting a little too big for it. Her message to new parents: Educate yourselves on safe sleep habits.
“Open your mouth and say I’m concerned about this so you can get the assistance,” Williams said.
Sudden unexpected infant death is a broad category that includes sudden infant death syndrome and accidental suffocation and strangulation that could come from overcrowded bassinets or cribs.
Ohio last week joined New Jersey in offering the cardboard boxes, which double as bassinets, for free. Each box comes filled with a mattress, fitted sheet, onesie and nappies.
The Baby Box Co. is also handing out the boxes in Minneapolis, Phoenix and San Francisco, with the goal of expanding to all 50 US states. The for-profit company also operates in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom
The idea for baby boxes started in Finland in the 1930s, and is tied to a sharp drop in sudden infant deaths, according to Dr Kathryn McCans, a pediatrician who chairs New Jersey’s Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board. The boxes provide a clutter-free sleep space that has been shown to reduce accidental and unexpected deaths, she said.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the US rate of sudden unexpected infant deaths has been declining since the 1990s when public health officials began recommending parents put infants to sleep on their backs.
About 3700 sudden unexpected infant deaths were reported in 2015.