Baby sleeping deaths
State report points to risk of suffocation when infants are sharing couch or bed
State report points to risk of suffocation when infants are sharing couch or bed.
Unsafe sleep environments are increasingly to blame for infant deaths in New York, according to new state data.
The increase was detailed in a yearend report from the state Office of Children and Family Services, which reviews all deaths involving children in the state’s child welfare system. This includes children in foster care, children ensnared in local child protective or preventive services cases, and all deaths reported to the state’s child abuse hotline.
The report shows that in 2017, six out of every 10 deaths reviewed by the office occurred in children younger than a year old, with almost half attributed to an unsafe sleep environment. The most common of these involved co-sleeping scenarios, where an adult shared a bed or couch with an infant and the baby accidentally suffocated.
Others involved environments with soft bedding, or items that obstructed the baby’s air flow.
“Child fatalities that occur in unsafe sleep environments most frequently occur when infants are placed in adult beds,” the report notes. “Additionally, the fatalities that occur in adult beds usually involve a co-sleeping scenario with one or more other adults or children.”
A total of 230 infants in New York died while in an unsafe sleeping environment from 2015 to 2017.
A review of where the children were showed most (141) were on an adult bed at the time of death. An additional 28 were on a couch, 20 were in a crib,
11 were in a bassinet, six were on an air mattress, four were in a car seat or stroller, and four were on a chair. There was one death involving a child on a floor and another in a playpen.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that for safe sleep, babies be placed on their backs on a flat, firm surface without any other items around. It recommends sharing a room with your baby, but not a bed, and warns against napping with a baby on your chest in case the adult falls asleep and the baby suffocates or rolls off.
The rise in infant deaths attributable to unsafe sleep environments is not unique to New York. Such deaths have been on the rise nationally in recent years due to a rise in adults sharing a sleep surface with their child.
In 2016, Office of Children and Family Services and the state Health Department launched a campaign to raise awareness and education about safe sleep among parents with newborns and maternity hospital nurses. That year, the number of sleep-related deaths in infants fell from 85 to 60. In 2017, they rose again to 85.
On the whole, deaths among children in New York’s child welfare system rose slightly in 2017 from 290 to 304. The percent of cases in which child abuse or maltreatment was substantiated fell, however, from 38 percent to 32 percent.
Most deaths (59 percent) occurred in infants, followed by children ages 1 to 4 (23 percent).
Also notable from 2017 was the rise in child deaths where the manner of death was labeled “pending” — meaning it required more information. A manner of death is certified by a medical examiner or coroner and recorded on a death certificate, and follows guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pending deaths rose from 76 in 2016 to 112 in 2017. There were 63 accidental deaths in 2017, followed by 62 natural deaths, 40 undetermined/unknown deaths, 20 homicides and seven suicides.