Safe sleeping and your baby……
Sleep Position:
This has been an ongoing dilemma since we were kids and the fashion of sleep position comes and goes.
As far as the bodies anatomy works, there is no fashion that comes into this!
Since parents stopped putting babies on their tummies to sleep, the incidence of SIDS has decreased by 50%. A scary but interesting and very real statistic is that SIDS remains the leading cause of death for infants aged 1 month to 1 years!
Back sleeping: Well, America was very much leading the back-sleeping position theory for a while, up till very recently, so if you have American books, this is only beginning to change. The reason their influence was on back position and not side position is because they felt, a large portion of the population would not buy wedges to keep their baby in the side sleeping position and therefore the baby could easily roll over from side to tummy therefore increasing the incidence of SIDS once again! I.e. tummy sleeping is a BIG NO!!!! And therefore, it was felt that back position would be safer! They have since found that babies develop flat heads from being on their backs all the time and now they have a whole generation of flat headed children who need to have helmets for some time to remold their skulls!
Europe and South Africa have been doing the side position for some time because if you are aware of our anatomy this without a doubt IS the safest position for your baby! WHY?…..Because when you are on your side, as long as you are breathing ( even if the baby loses consciousness, let’s say in the case of a febrile convulsion for example) the airway is maintained or kept opened because the tongue is lifted off the back of the throat. If the baby is on his back and for some reason loses consciousness the tongue will fall back and close the airway and the baby will obviously then stop breathing. If the baby is on his back without elevation of the back and the head and he vomits the vomit will go down his Trachea (airway) and into his lungs. If there is mucous in his vomit, which babies often do have this could be thick enough to block his airway even if he is on his back. Whereas if he was on his side it would drain out of his mouth.
American Heart Association and Resus Council of South Africa teach us to turn the unconscious patient (this is the breathing but unresponsive patient) into recovery position (side position) so that he can continue breathing and so that his airway won’t be blocked by vomit. This is obviously for a very compromised patient who may have had a seizure; heart attack; stroke etc. Surely then it would make sense that if we do the above for a compromised patient that we would ensure our new babies and for as long as possible will be slept in the safest position possible? Obviously, a wedge is imperative! The cheap wedges that you can get from Baby City (two triangles, one long and one short with a piece of velcro in the middle to make wider or narrower) is perfect! The baby needs to be very snug between the two wedges, don’t worry about room to move, they have been very happy in a small space in your tummy for a long time! They are secure in a snug space! Don’t forget to change baby to the other side after waking to avoid a flat face.
I feel a breathing monitor (the angel monitor is exceptional, without a doubt my favorite monitor) is vital, it gives you peace of mind that if anything goes wrong causing your baby to stop breathing, you will be alerted immediately! A breathing monitor should be used up till two years of age. We see SIDS until two years of age. Hand in hand with this, is knowing how to do CPR, pointless using a monitor and not knowing how to do CPR. It not only saves your baby’s life but very importantly, their brain function!
Sleep position is probably the most important contributing factor for SIDS
