Bed-sharing is risky, and possibly deadly for sleeping infants

Recently, National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition aired a story titled “Is Sleeping With Your Baby as Dangerous as Doctors Say?” The reporter argued that American pediatricians should abandon their current safe-sleep recommendations for all babies and instead give different bed-sharing recommendations to parents based on their individual risk factors. This is a perilous approach to educating parents on safe sleep practices.

Unsafe sleep practices remain the leading cause of preventable death for children under age 1 in Florida. Most of Florida’s health educators stand behind the American Academy of Pediatrics’ universal recommendation that infants sleep safest when on their back, in a crib or bassinet with only a firm mattress and tight-fitting sheet, and in the same room as their parents for the first year of life.

Research clearly shows that many risk factors are associated with a higher incidence of sleep-related deaths. These include stomach sleeping, exposure to cigarette smoke, sleeping on or under soft surfaces or loose bedding, poor prenatal care, and prematurity or low birth weight. But eliminating these risk factors does not completely eliminate the risk.

Attempting to assess a family’s self-reported risk for the purpose of giving them personalized safe infant sleep instructions is problematic. Despite a practitioner’s best efforts to engage and get to know families, they will never know whether there are risk factors they are unaware of. ...

The fact remains that bed-sharing itself is a risky behavior. The NPR story does admit that bed-sharing, even in the absence of risk factors such as soft bedding, heavy coverings or a parent under the influence of drugs or alcohol, raises the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by about threefold. A pediatrician then points out that even at three times the risk, it’s still a very small number of babies affected. This is a shocking assertion from a pediatrician. The bottom line is that “low risk” does not mean “no risk” and even one baby is too many to lose to a tragedy that is completely preventable. No parent or doctor wants this on their conscience. CONNIE SHINGLEDECKER, BRADENTON Editor’s note: Shingledecker retired after 39 years with the Manatee County Sheriff ’s Office, focusing much of her career on investigating and supervising the investigations of Crimes against Children and Child Protective Investigations.