Safety sleep program expands with cardboard boxes as cribs

TRENTON, N.J. — 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 U.S.

Parents are beginning to take baby boxes home from hospitals along 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 program.

“To new moms: (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.

MATT ROURKE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS New Jersey became the first state to send newborns and their parents home with a box that doubles as a crib and full of necessities, with the aim of cutting back on sudden infant death syndrome.