The death of a child is something that we all have a hard time coming to term with. This is especially if the death is something that could have possibly been prevented, in some cases. This is why this topic is of such importance to me. Up until the mid-1990's, tens of thousands of children have died from SIDS. In North America it is known as crib death, and in England SIDS is known as cot death. In the beginning SIDS was a mystery because parents put their seemingly healthy babies to bed safely, to find them dead the next morning. In South Australia, a scientist by the name of Susan Beal studied all infant deaths that occurred because of SIDS. Somethings appeared to be non-factors, while others such as maternal smoking and lambskin blankets. Soon Beal would find variations within various cultures/ethnicities. It seemed that China had less incidences with SIDS than other countries. Beal noted that the reason could be because infants in China slept on their backs, while other countries practiced putting infants to sleep on their stomachs. After this realization, Beal realized that sleep position mattered. News of her findings were spread from country to country, and soon "Back to Sleep" was the new method of placing infants in their cribs. "In the United States, in 1984, SIDS killed 5,245 babies; in 1996, that number was down to 3,050; in the past decade, it has decreased to about 2,000 a year" (Berger, 2012, p.5). Other risks of an increased risk for SIDS includes; low birth-rate, cigarette smoking in the household, brain-stem abnormalities, soft blankets or pillows, and bed sharing. I currently work with preschoolers, but if I were to ever go back into the infant room, I would place all infants on their back while sleeping, and give them the correct amount of tummy time for learning to crawl. Of course, daycare centers don't allow smoking or bed sharing, so this wouldn't present a problem.
References
Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
.
Dear Shawanza, thank you for sharing this with us. In China, we usually have the babies sleep on their back, there is also problem about sleep on back. The head bone is very soft in the first months, sometimes since people don't pay attention to the babies' sleep position, the shape of the back head will become not so even. But it's true that I seldom heard the SID in China.
ReplyDeleteHey shawanza, i want to thank you for your nice blog, i enjoyed reading it, SIDS is a mystery, sleeping on the back is decreasing the risk of SIDS, I always encourging my families to let their babies sleep on their backs, but i want to comment about Xia li's comment, which it is cultural variations, the chinese nation do not let their babies sleep on the back the first months, because sleeping on soft things will change the shapes of the head bone, so the most of the babies in china has flat from the back of the head, maybe cute.
ReplyDeleteHello Shawanza
ReplyDeleteThank you for the background research on SIDS and how it became implemented from country- to- country. I was not aware that there were so many SIDS related deaths in the United States, thank goodness these numbers continue to decrease! In the organization that I work for it is mandatory that staff place infants on their backs during rest periods. It is also a requirement that parents sign documentation that they understand their infant will only be placed in this position while in our care. It always amazes me with all the literature available to parents even before they leave the hospital with their infants, that parents will attempt to ask caregivers to place their infant on their stomach because they (the parent) feel this position helps the baby sleep better. This makes me wonder how they are placing their infant in the crib at home. Great post!
Shelita
Hi Shawnaza!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting about SIDS! Your provided some great background to how the issue became important and how we took on a serious solution. I have worked more with toddlers and up but when I worked with infants I always keep my education up on whats best for their development. I have to say that, when in a day care setting I never worry too much about SIDS occurring however, i carry a fear of this for when i have a child. I guess the fear is more of waking to find the baby suffered of SIDS. Although, I know i have plenty of education and experience, it's very different when they are your 24/7/365 responsibility. Thanks for sharing!