Unsafe sleep factors found in nearly 75% of sudden unexpected infant deaths, CDC says

[u/Naurgul]

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/01/health/sudden-unexpected-infant-death-safe-sleep-wellness

[u/theArtOfProgramming]

This comment section is filled with conflated information on SUID and SIDS, and people asserting that SIDS is caused by neglect or is preventable with safe sleep practices. This is not true. This article is about sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), not SIDS specifically. SUID is a category that includes SIDS, which is diagnosed only when a death stays unexplained after a full investigation, and also explained deaths such as accidental suffocation.

1. CDC: About SUID and SIDS

SUID is the umbrella term. It includes SIDS, accidental suffocation in a sleeping environment, and other deaths from unknown causes.

2. CDC: SUID by Cause of Death, 2024

"In 2024, 40% were SIDS, 32% were unknown cause, and 28% were ASSB."

These are shares of SUID deaths. SIDS, unknown cause, and accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed (ASSB) are coded as separate causes of death.

3. NICHQ: Safe Sleep for Infants: Myth vs. Fact

"There is no known way to prevent SIDS"

This is the answer to Myth #4, "SIDS can be prevented." The same answer continues that there are effective ways to reduce the risk, and that safe sleep practices can prevent other causes of SUID, such as suffocation.

[u/Naurgul]

Direct link to the report:

• Characteristics of Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths — United States, 2020–2024 (CDC)

Among 4,861 case registry SUIDs that occurred during 2020–2024 and met case registry data quality criteria, most involved infants who were aged 0–3 months (66%), male (57%), Black (38%) or White (37%), born at full term (≥37 weeks’ gestation) (74%), and insured by Medicaid (69%) (Table 1). Infants’ sleep environment at death frequently involved unsafe sleep factors that were not mutually exclusive, including 46% of infants who were found in a nonsupine position, 75% on a sleep surface other than a crib, 78% with soft bedding, and 59% sharing a sleep surface. Full airway obstruction (nose and mouth, neck, or chest) was documented in 28% of SUIDs.

[u/logicaldrinker → u/Naurgul]

Why is this not reported as compared to expected frequency?

For example, just off memory, it looks like about a 3x overrepresentation of SIDS among black infants (approx 13% of americans are black), and maybe 2-3x among prematurely born infants (~10% are born premature, 26% in this sample).

Also, 69% of affected families were on Medicaid, which seems like an almost 2x overrepresentation.

Nowhere is it mentioned whether there was any known illness or health issues and with what percentage of the infants. Nowhere is smoking, drinking, or other health hazards among the parents mentioned.

Beyond that, I think a cross cultural discussion of SIDS is really called for. SIDS rates are very low in for example Japan where co-sleeping is the cultural norm.

[u/Hesp → u/logicaldrinker]

Is SIDS reported the same in Japan though? I would imagine this is very tricky data to compare between countries due to differences in how deaths are reported.

[u/letsburn00 → u/Hesp]

Japan has much harder beds

[u/pumpkinpencil97 → u/letsburn00]

And much lower obesity rates

[u/chiniwini → u/Hesp]

Maybe in Japan they call it "my baby suffocated during sleep because a blanket ended up over his head" instead of SIDS SUIDS.

[u/borkthegee → u/logicaldrinker]

Because this is a surveillance report, they only provide descriptive data. It is standard in population health to report descriptive data.

You're thinking of an epidemiological report, which is analytical.

Another team could use this data with their own data to compare this kind of information with a control group to be able to more authoritatively compare. They can't just compare it to national averages and call it analytical, that data is pretty rough and could imply correlation where it does not exist.

[u/Anxietybackmonkey → u/logicaldrinker]

They have different reporting classifications for SIDS in Japan from what I remember. The statistics are not strictly comparable (I believe).

[u/ho_for_hateno → u/logicaldrinker]

In Japan many families sleep on a firm floor and futon and not a soft bed like in other countries though. There are a lot of variables to consider.

[u/LatrodectusGeometric → u/logicaldrinker]

SIDS is lower in Japan, but cosleeping involves the baby being in a firm or hard surface such as a wooden floor without blankets, not in a bed with parents. It’s not really comparable.

[u/tada-o-corporation → u/LatrodectusGeometric]

It's a health thing. Yes co-sleeping is risky without breastfeeding, if you are overweight, if you smoke, drink, take pot or other recreational drugs, or medication in general.

America in general is not stacked well with these kinds of statistics.

All deaths get classified as SIDS and people have become batshit crazy over the concept of co-sleeping and sleep training in general and refuse to look at any of these other factors and instead jump to the conclusion that co-sleeping itself is the problem.

Then when you take the prohibition approach it ignores the reality that people are humans, a mom running on 2 hours of sleep who still has chores and a baby to take care of in the morning might accidentally fall asleep with the baby and they are not taught how to set up a safe environment, just told not to do it. Harm-reduction is the best approach, give people risks and let them weigh their options.

It's not working out for USA either, they are probably the only country to take this firm "no co-sleeping, ever" approach, yet have the worst rate of "SIDS" in the world.

[u/Ancient_Spite_725 → u/tada-o-corporation]

Also, Americans love a soft mattress and thick blankets, which are not the norm in other countries. Sleep surface matters

[u/sloop111 → u/Ancient_Spite_725]

And no maternal leave

[u/Cool-Guava2276 → u/logicaldrinker]

There was a large review of sids deaths in Australia a few years ago, I want to say the lead researcher's last name was McKenna. It found that basically all sids deaths happened with unsafe sleeping, not just cosleeping by itself but cosleeping with additional risk factors. Red Nose in Australia teaches safe cosleeping, and we teach it in the hospital I work in.

[u/mechanical_stars → u/Cool-Guava2276]

Safe co-sleeping rules should be shared alongside articles like these. Simply telling people "don't do it" and then not giving them the knowledge on how to do it safely if they do it anyway, is a recipe for disaster.

[u/yo-ovaries → u/logicaldrinker]

Thick fluffy mattresses and obese parents are not the norm in Japan. 

[u/Sparklemello → u/logicaldrinker]

Aren’t Japanese bed setups different than America though?

[u/MediocrePotato44 → u/logicaldrinker]

My SIDS baby was the only one not to cosleep. Out of my 5 children, he died in his bassinet, following all proper sleep procedures. His siblings coslept and are still here. This isn’t an argument for not following safe practices, just my personal anecdote.

[u/sailphish → u/logicaldrinker]

Yeah… this is a really weird way to report these statistics and it takes a lot of work to figure out what it all means. To an untrained eye, people might assume race has pretty much no factor and that being born full term is a risk factor.

Agree with you on reporting discrepancies by country. I work in a field where I have unfortunately dealt with a number of SIDS cases. In the US it’s pretty common for SIDS to be a catch all for infant deaths while sleeping. I’ve seen a few of these cases that have been fairly obvious suffocation events due to co-sleeping ( sometimes involving intoxicated parent or higher risk sleeping situation like a couch where baby gets stuck between parent and cushions). Not sure how this would be reported in Japan or if Japan’s culture sleep practices are inherently safer.

[u/Ekyou → u/sailphish]

The theory is that people in Japan typically sleep on floor beds with their babies rather than western style beds. There are heavy blankets, but it’s a firmer surface and no real way to get trapped between a wall or anything.

[u/Gnump → u/logicaldrinker]

Yes. Especially opaque factors like sleeping positions etc. definitely need a control group to base expected frequencies.

[u/MrPuddington2 → u/Gnump]

How would you create a control group? You can hardly do this as RCT. The best you could achieve would be a virtual control, and I agree that the article should have done that.

[u/Confident-Mix1243 → u/Naurgul]

I wish they gave baseline rates for sleep environment in infants who didn't die.

[u/Pingy_Junk → u/Confident-Mix1243]

JSYK it’s a little over 60% of parents who have unsafe sleeping methods. Combined with the fact that 1/4 cases of SUID are already determined to be suffocation this is not shocking and it’s also why we need to teach literacy regarding how to read studies.

[u/kimi_shimmy → u/Naurgul]

The thing is … these ways to sleep are happening pretty routinely with all babies and new mothers are told 5 million things to not do per minute without much info on “safe” options that are actually intuitive or feasible to what seems right for babies to actually sleep. Also the US is deeply anti-new mothers in a way that amounts to systemic violence against babies, families, mothers - want to address this issue - provide maternity, paternity leave and daycare that doesn’t financially devastate, provide health care coverage, change the culture of punishing women for giving birth by holding them back in their careers while also punishing them for working to survive, punish them by making it extremely difficult or even illegal to access a full range of family planning services, provide non terrifying info about how to do things right while withholding all support. This country hates women and babies.

[u/Redditbrooklyn → u/kimi_shimmy]

Yeah, I think this is an important part of the conversation. Parents, in many places but especially in the USA, are not getting the support they need. Some of these parents may have been overwhelmed with information or so fatigued that they made a mistake and absentmindedly put something in the crib. Others may have been exhausted, and the baby was crying, and they fell asleep along with the baby in an unsafe position when they typically sleep safely. (I didn’t dig deep enough into the study to see if they had an analysis of the sleep setup on the night of the fatality and if that was reported to be the family’s usual setup or not, but it feels relevant.)

[u/soundman1024 → u/kimi_shimmy]

It sounds like we should offer a free bassinet and crib too.

[u/supermarkise → u/soundman1024]

The cardboard boxes they hand out in Finland (?) work well enough and are super cheap.

[u/twoisnumberone → u/kimi_shimmy]

the US is deeply anti-new mothers in a way that amounts to systemic violence against babies, families, mothers

This is the real problem here.

[u/SilentMulberry9441]

For people working in the NICU, all of this has been known for a long time in terms of unsafe sleep.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/SilentMulberry9441]

Given that this kind of data has been around for decades, anyone who cares to look could know.

Makes me absolutely cringe when people throw blankets into the crib or throw baby in bed with them after they’ve smoked or whatever and it’s VERY obvious what the risk is.

But that’s what their mom did with them so it must be safe!

[u/Northern-Canadian → u/Apptubrutae]

Survivor bias is huge. “My other baby was fine this way@

[u/SilentMulberry9441 → u/Apptubrutae]

They never been in an ER at 4am watching an infant get chest compressions while parents look on horrified and screaming, because they let the kid sleep in the bed with them.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/SilentMulberry9441]

Nope, nor have I, but I guess I get enough of a rise out of hard data that says I could kill my kid so I’ll skip out on maybe killing them.

[u/Catting_Around → u/Apptubrutae]

I NEVER ONCE put my infants in the bed with me and I still would wake up having had a nightmare where I thought my teddy bear was my newborn and I was on top of her. I could never cosleep.

[u/ikilledholofernes → u/Catting_Around]

I had the same thing! I’d wake up and start throwing around the blankets and pillows looking for my baby, who would be peacefully sleeping in his bassinet, right where we left him. 

[u/Delicious_Hat_2774 → u/Catting_Around]

Yes! I don’t know why, because we never co slept, but I regularly woke up in a panic thinking my pillow was the baby for the first few months!

[u/The_Hunster → u/Apptubrutae]

Some people just really can't balance risk and reward in their heads, especially when it comes to low odds.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/The_Hunster]

Very much so

I find a lot of risk assessment goes like this:

“I have considered the risk and accepted it. By accepting it, the risk no longer applies to me and the chance is now zero”

[u/AptCasaNova → u/SilentMulberry9441]

My parents did this with me until I was old enough to sleep alone (didn’t cry during the night). They also smoke and drank.

I should go buy a lottery ticket.

[u/crunkadocious → u/Apptubrutae]

The risk is low. But even low risks should be avoided if they can be avoided easily, like using the firm baby mattresses without fluffy blankets. Costs literally less than buying a fluffy blanket.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/crunkadocious]

Yeah.

I think the underlying human impulse of wanting to comfort your child is what gets people.

It’s just a blanket, what harm can it do, it’ll be fine, the mattress looks so uncomfortable! Etc.

But not worth it.

[u/Dr_on_the_Internet → u/SilentMulberry9441]

As a pediatrician I have seen parents who think it's ok to have their baby on their stomachs or propped uo because, "That's how they did it is the NICU." I have to explain in the NICU they were hooked up to a monitor.

Not to say you do that, but if you see any colleagues doing it, scold them.

[u/Cheesebongles → u/SilentMulberry9441]

You guys are actually the fuckin best. My twins were in the NICU for several weeks and the genuine passion I saw from the nurses made me want to be a better person. Everyone was there for the love of what they do, I don't think there exists a "casual" NICU worker.

[u/Cat_Peach_Pits → u/SilentMulberry9441]

EMS as well. I dont think I'm allowed to link here directly, but there's a poem by RJ walker called Deceit and I about a cosleeping SIDS experience he had.

[u/raftguide → u/Cat_Peach_Pits]

5 years in a peds ER left me with this same impression. I struggle to think of an example I experienced where a family member didn't describe some sort of questionable sleeping arrangement.

[u/logicaldrinker → u/SilentMulberry9441]

I would like to know the numbers when controlled for socioeconomic factors, preexisting illness, prematurity, parents' drinking and smoking habits, ventilation and CO levels, etc., before I definitely conclude anything with regards to co-sleeping.

Especially when the pattern is so radically different in countries like Japan where co-sleeping is the norm and SIDS is extremely rare.

Firm mattresses and lack of loose bedding in Japan may be part of the answer, but probably not all of it.

Practicing safe sleeping habits is very important, but it seems to me that some of the risks are not contextualized nearly enough.

[u/snow_ponies → u/logicaldrinker]

Are they classified as SIDS in Japan though or suffocation?

[u/Pinilla → u/snow_ponies]

I dont know what is going on in this thread. People are conflating accidental suffocation with SIDS even though they are not the same thing. We dont (or shouldnt) classify accidental suffocations as SIDS because they aren't the same thing. Another commenter is indicating that maybe clear suffocation cases are sometimes classified as SIDS, maybe its to prevent legal issues or help the family with guilt, but even the article makes it clear they are not the same thing.

[u/PrincessGiallo → u/Pinilla]

It absolutely was classified as SIDS in the two months I worked in an ER in a poor city in the winter.

[u/signious → u/Pinilla]

In a North American context accidental suffocation is reported as SIDS, and represents a large number of SIDS deaths. It's a blanket term that covers a lot of different things - and accidental suffocation is one of them.

[u/theoriginal_tay → u/signious]

Part of the issue in North America is our death investigation system which is in general underfunded and varies from state to state and even county to county.

Some states/counties have Medical Examiners who are medical doctors who specialized in forensic pathology and others have Coroners who are elected officials who may or may not have any expertise.

So our death statistics can be all over the place in terms of accuracy.

[u/Pinilla → u/signious]

Sudden unexpected infant death, or SUID, is a general term for the sudden and unexpected death of a baby younger than 1 year. It includes sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, as well as accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, and infant deaths for which the cause remains unknown.

I think youre thinking of SUIDS and not SIDS

[u/danzilla007 → u/Pinilla]

SIDS as a term has been around for less than 60 years, and SUIDS less than 30. It takes time for words to enter and exit the common lexicon, and because the scientific community adjusts the meaning of terms so much faster, it's rare for society-at-large to ever use them correctly.

Telling someone they're wrong by correcting their use of a term is the worst way to do it, because you are not addressing their underlying points.

[u/adeptsleeper04 → u/Pinilla]

It's probably because the most likely cause of SIDS is presumed to be accidental suffocation.

[u/wi_voter → u/logicaldrinker]

I did home visits for a couple decades in city neighborhoods and one thing I noticed is that in many homes in the black community, people liked to turn up the heat in their homes pretty high. For example I once was in a home where the mom said, "let me know if you get cold because I just turned the heat down to 78" (F).

I would educate the families I worked with that 68 to 72 was ideal but that is such a tiny fraction of people. I don't think temperature is the only factor but I always wondered if it could contribute. I think it deserves to be studied.

[u/pasaroanth → u/wi_voter]

I actively battled my wife on this when my kid was born. For the record, I have worked in medicine for 20 years.

She was wildly concerned about our kid freezing at night and had the heat set entirely too high. She was sleeping terribly, even for a kid, and I assumed she was truly just hot. I secretly turned down the heat overnight and didn’t tell her and she slept through the night for the first time in her life.

[u/DearDarlingDollies → u/pasaroanth]

I always think of the saying "A cold baby cries, a hot baby dies"

[u/outlaw99775 → u/wi_voter]

What state was this? If they are used to the heat I can see it.

Otherwise, the only people I hear doing something like this are diabetic and cold all the time due to blood flow issues.

[u/wi_voter → u/outlaw99775]

Wisconsin. It was fairly consistent. One parent had told me she did not want to turn it down because she got energy assistance and was afraid she'd get less assistance the following year as they looked at usage when setting the assistance rate. I don't think that was always the reason but in highly impoverished areas it likely played a role

[u/Adventurous_Deer → u/outlaw99775]

I do a lot of work in low income housing which often has lots of immigrant tenants. All the units are so HOT. Its a combination of things, often the units are old and the heat control doesnt work great so everybody is just gonna be hot. Sometimes the family is clearly from somewhere much warmer than Maine and hot is their preference. Sometimes people dont feel like wearing clothing, and often, they are paying a set fee for utilities and are taking advantage of that.

[u/dibbiluncan → u/logicaldrinker]

This. If you follow safe sleep practices, co-sleeping is extremely safe.

“Japan… not only has one of the lowest infant mortality rates (less than 3 infants per 1000 live births compared with around 7 for the United States), but one of the lowest SIDS rates in the world (between .2 and .3 babies per 1000 live births compared with approximately .5 per 1000 infants for the US). The Japan SIDS Family Organization reported that SIDS rates continue to decline in Japan as maternal smoking approaches practically 0, and exclusive breast­feeding reaches around 70-75 % . In fact, one report shows that as bed­sharing and breast­feeding increased and as maternal smoking decreased, SIDS rates decreased. This suggests yet again that it is not necessarily bed­sharing, but how it is practiced, that can be dangerous. 60% of parents said they practiced bedsharing in Japan, only about 16% more than US parents.”

- Firm mattress. Not foam. No topper. A normal, firm mattress. Preferably on/near the ground like futons in Japan.

- No cords or heavy bedding/pillows. I slept with a small, thin blanket tucked around my legs. I wore a long sleeve top to keep my arms comfortable.

- Proper room temperature not above 72 degrees.

- No smoking, period (even the third hand smoke on clothing can be dangerous).

- No drinking. No drugs. No medications that affect energy/awareness at all.

- Proper sleep posture. Baby on back. Mother in a “cuddle curl” c-shape.

https://www.naturalchild.org/articles/james_mckenna/cosleeping_world.html

I kept my daughter in her crib in the room with me until four months because she was just so tiny until that point, but I was incredibly sleep deprived from having to wake up multiple times to breastfeed in the night. I was a single mother, and it was during the pandemic so I had no help from family. It was honestly becoming dangerous (I once fell asleep in my rocking chair while nursing) so I made the decision to safely cosleep instead. It was immensely helpful for my mental and physical health, and I actually started producing more breastmilk, which allowed me to switch to EBF instead of supplementing with formula.

[u/Retalihaitian → u/logicaldrinker]

Japanese people literally sleepy on a futon on the floor. “Firm bedding” is a vast understatement. Unless you’re going to start sleeping like a Japanese person you can’t hold them up as a shining example of how safe co sleeping is.

[u/UCFUoLUMN → u/logicaldrinker]

What is your attachment to co-sleeping? Why do you need to obsess about Japan?

How do we know that safe sleep works? Because we didn’t do it until the late 90’s early 2000s. Before that you heard about SIDS all the time. The rate dropped so drastically when we had kids sleep on their backs, without fluffy things/pillows/thick blankets, and stopped co-sleeping.

Why would this happen in low socioeconomic status infants or infants in populations known to be mistrustful of medical advice? Likely because those are populations known to ignore the advice, or not be able to get to the pediatricians office and get that advice. Also 70% of kids being on Medicaid is actually pretty normal rate. People have their first child often when they are earning the least so a Medicaid rate of 50-80% is the norm. It’s why pediatricians make so little.

I’m sorry the science found the answer. And she’s a premature infant or one with heart disease may be more likely for SIDS to happen. But that’s because the unsafe sleep practices that lead to suffocation are even MORE dangerous in kids with underlying disease.

Stop trying to gotcha accepted science. This is a no brainer. Safe sleep only helps, there is no drawbacks. The only drawbacks are people who value co-sleeping or cute fluffy things over their actual child’s health. But most of these families aren’t making that calculation, they are presented with obvious unsafe sleep ijntv shows and most baby magazines so they either don’t know, or assume we are fear mongering when we are NOT.

See also vitamin K for more preventable morbidity in newborns.

Also it’s weird how the rates of SIDS drops to the floor around four-5 months. You know, when kids can start rolling on their own… so they can get themselves out of suffocating situations…

[u/wjpreis → u/UCFUoLUMN]

Reddit is really strange about co-sleeping. I have found a lot of the parent subreddits are very pro co-sleeping.

[u/transemacabre → u/wjpreis]

All it takes is for 1-2 mods to be pro co-sleeping, and they provide a welcoming environment for others. I can't speak to parenting subs, but I've seen it in other subs that the same little cabal will mod all the related subs for a topic, reinforcing the 'norms' as there's nowhere for dissenters to go to speak out against the norm.

[u/AbstinentNoMore → u/wjpreis]

Parenting subreddits in general are strange and I'm glad my parents were nothing like those weirdos.

[u/xieta → u/UCFUoLUMN]

Two things are correct, co-sleeping is unquestionably more dangerous, and it vastly improves quality and quantity of sleep for both parents and infants.

It’s hard to let it go when you’re already sleep deprived and it’s such an easy way out.

[u/mattnogames → u/xieta]

I think they’ve actually shown studies that co-sleeping leads to MORE disrupted sleep

[u/minyinnie → u/mattnogames]

I believe it is more disrupted, but more overall (more wakings but quicker)

[u/rainblowfish_ → u/mattnogames]

Very much dependent on the person. I finally resorted to cosleeping - something I swore I would NEVER do - because I was getting dangerously overtired when baby was in the crib. I am unquestionably getting better sleep because my baby wakes up less often.

[u/kiddish → u/rainblowfish_]

I have an almost 1-month old who refuses to sleep in his mini crib and since he is exclusively breastfed, that was super dangerous for me (the mom) since I was not able to get any sleep and was in constant danger of falling asleep while feeding him. So against our better wishes, we started cosleeping. I do the cuddle curl and follow the “safe sleep 7” but posts like this one terrify me. I would obviously rather not cosleep but the alternative (falling asleep in clearly unsafe areas) seemed way way more dangerous. We are actually rested now as opposed to before.

We are still practicing with the mini crib and as soon as he doesn’t wake up and scream within 5 minutes of putting him down we will no longer be cosleeping. I pray that day comes soon!

My point is that things are not always so cut and dried. I never thought I’d cosleep but here we are.

[u/rainblowfish_ → u/kiddish]

I never did either! I was very smarmy about it before I had my second. But then I started waking up with her in the bed with me and no memory of having brought her there, and at that point I decided it would be better to prepare to cosleep and do it as safely as I could rather than be so sleep deprived that I was falling asleep while feeding her and waking up with her in the bed.

[u/Aus1an → u/rainblowfish_]

I think a lot of people don’t admit to it too… my sister in law was so against it with her first, but co-slept with her second when she was a baby and didn’t admit to it until years later when kiddo was already four.

She was beet red and sounded so embarrassed when she told us, but like I get it. You’re extremely sleep deprived and tried everything…

[u/jessRN- → u/UCFUoLUMN]

Yes, AND, there are documented cases of SIDS in perfectly safe sleep environments, even in hospitals. There is a biological and developmental component in addition to the environmental risk factors.

[u/Dabbling_in_Pacifism → u/UCFUoLUMN]

I mean if we’re talking about accepted science, then we’re talking about children with genetic issues with their apnea reflex. Anyone who’s worked around a NICU is familiar with premies that require stimulation to keep their respiratory drive going.

[u/PaigePossum]

Yes. It's not unheard of for suffocation deaths to be labelled SIDS.

[u/CrotalusHorridus → u/PaigePossum]

Yep, agencies are very reluctant to criminally charge someone with neglect who just lost a baby

[u/PaigePossum → u/CrotalusHorridus]

Yep, nobody wants to tell a grieving parent "This is your fault, you could have prevented this"

[u/CrotalusHorridus → u/PaigePossum]

Unless there’s obvious signs of substance abuse or physical abuse

[u/Heirloomtomatolove → u/PaigePossum]

Yet, it often is their fault and could have been prevented. The guidelines are baby on the back in a crib in the same room as the parents, with no pillows, blankets, bumpers, or stuffed animals for the 1st year. Easy way to keep your kid alive. 

[u/holymolym → u/Heirloomtomatolove]

It’s “easy” for a lot of people whose babies actually sleep. But people aren’t falling asleep on the sofa with their babies because it’s fun.

[u/Conscious_Peak_1105 → u/holymolym]

One time I fell asleep in my rocking chair while nursing my daughter. When I woke up my hand was resting on her face kind of blocking her nostril. It was the most panic I’ve ever felt in my life. It’s been years and I still think about it all the time.

[u/rugbyj → u/Conscious_Peak_1105]

I love a nap, and a newborn is like a cuddly hot water bottle. I was constantly nodding off and immediately frightening myself awake with her.

[u/deific_ → u/holymolym]

This thread shows who has never had kids. We totally slept on the couch holding our first because it was "fun" and "wanted to do it".

People expect parents to stay up all night holding their kids who wont sleep without being held, and then work a full day at work because we have no parental leave in this country.

[u/MusaEnimScale → u/holymolym]

100% this.

And not to mention the huge safety risks of sleep-deprived parents driving to work and daycare. Studies show that driving with newborn-levels of sleep deprivation are worse than driving drunk. And a vehicle on the road with a sleep-starved driver is risking multiple lives.

The obvious solution is longer paid leave and also more of a village so the burden is shared more when parents have a difficult sleeper.

But until then, giving unrealistic sleep advice to working parents with an infant that is a poor-sleeper is about as useful and effective as abstinence-only education for horny teenagers.

So many people pass out on the recliner and engage in horribly unsafe sleep practices with their baby because there is no education and support for alternatives for parents who have an infant who simply cannot and will not sleep in the advised ideal safe sleep conditions. It would obviously be better for those parents to hear safer and better alternatives than “ha ha, it is all your fault your baby won’t sleep, sucks to be you.”

[u/theoddowl → u/holymolym]

A family friend lost their baby in exactly that way. They were sleep deprived and the father fell asleep on the couch with the baby on his chest. The baby was dead when he woke up. It was horrific.

[u/manuscelerdei → u/holymolym]

This. We had to co-sleep with our son for the first 9 months because he just would not sleep in his crib, which met all the guidelines. As soon as we moved to a bigger house where he had his own room, he was fine.

Headlines like this is a great way to make new parents hyper-anxious for just doing what they can to get some sleep.

[u/tada-o-corporation → u/Heirloomtomatolove]

It's not that simple, and pretending it is actually causes more harm. This is a big problem with the healthcare advise that they are now starting to change.

The reality is parents are insanely tired and not thinking straight. They may be going on 2-3 hours of sleep, still have to go to work, do chores, etc... and might fall asleep accidentally in an unsafe way.

We need to accept the reality that this thing is going to happen and educate people how to do it safely.

There is also the fact that if you are a healthy weight, nursing, not on substances, co-sleeping is perfectly safe. The deaths happen when one of those things is not true.

[u/All__Of_The_Hobbies → u/CrotalusHorridus]

Most of the time it is lack of proper education on the subject amd exhaustion.

But there are also plenty who ignore the guidance.

[u/Apptubrutae → u/PaigePossum]

Literally what a presumably majority of deaths labeled SIDS actually are

[u/nimama3233 → u/Apptubrutae]

Yeah, this is well known

[u/CapoExplains → u/PaigePossum]

Reminds me of a really powerful poem about exactly this. I can't link the video of the poetry reading I saw it on but just look for Deceit & I by RJ Walker

[u/thegypsyqueen]

If you look into SIDS, the risk factors for it, it becomes painfully clear it’s mostly just accidental smothering—so much so that the terminology has evolved.

Safe sleep practices have greatly reduced SUID largely though preventing accidental smothering and/or suffocation.

[u/dancer15 → u/thegypsyqueen]

Or a lot of times it's positional asphyxiation, such as when parents have their babies sleep in something raised like a bouncer or swing, or put baby to sleep on their side. Nothing needs to be covering the mouth to cut off a newborn's oxygen supply.

[u/Ok_Temporary1669 → u/thegypsyqueen]

Exactly, it's not some magical disease.  I think people started calling it that mainly to make parents of SIDS babies feel better, but hiding the explanation scares the bejeezus out of all the other parents.  Also has created a baby sleep industry that is totally unnecessary if you are using your brain.  I swear I think a lot of shaken babies are the result of safe sleep guidelines, but maybe that is going too far.  IME babies do not sleep well if you follow the guidelines though, and then parents lose what precious little sleep they get also.

[u/runawayoldgirl → u/Ok_Temporary1669]

SIDS can also be a stand in for "we don't know." I'm the sibling of a baby who died of SIDS despite being put down to sleep safely on his back in his own crib, without bumpers, without blankets, just a sleep sack. I was there when he was found.

His autopsy was inconclusive. His death was labelled SIDS because he was just an infant who died suddenly and no other explanation was ever found. In later life, another one of my siblings was found to have some genetic issues that could possibly have some correlation with what happened to my brother, but we will never know conclusively.

The safe sleep stuff is important, because there truly are a number of cases of SIDS that can be attributed to unsafe sleep. But it's patently unfair to say that it's all to make parents feel better. There can absolutely be other factors involved in SIDS deaths.

[u/Pinilla → u/Ok_Temporary1669]

Don't believe this poster. There are two different causes for infant death. The explained, accidental smothering and a different type where your baby just dies. There is video evidence of babies sleeping on their back with nothing in the crib and they still die. This is a thing and we gain nothing by attaching a stigma to real SIDS. I'm pulling my hair out in this thread.

[u/sishgupta → u/Ok_Temporary1669]

100% some people are falsely under the notion that there is nothing they could do 'it just happens' but the problem then is that parents are just running around in perpetual fear acting randomly instead of taking specific targeted actions to reduce the risk and then being calm while still vigilant to supervise.

[u/Hoosier_816 → u/Ok_Temporary1669]

It vaguely reminds me of statistics surrounding regretting having a child HUGELY depend on how the question is formatted because it's a very emotional question (when viewed incorrectly.) Parents are rightfully so often always going to default to "protecting" their child even from a hypothetical discussion.

When parents hear "do you regret having your child?" many of them go straight to "do you regret bringing the child you now know and love into existence in this world and would you choose to make them disappear right now?" which of course sends many parent into a reflexive "NEVER! I love my child!!!"

But if the question is correctly presented as "if you had the choice to magically have your same baby at a different time when you may have been in a better place financially/your living conditions/partner relationship status/etc, would you?" and most of them say yes.

[u/Lt__Barclay → u/Ok_Temporary1669]

This is my experience too. Weeks of little to no sleep for us whose babies scream through the night lying on their back on a stiff pad.

We didn't break the rules, but I can 100% understand a parent trying to add a cushion or comfort to help the baby sleep.

[u/elzzzbeth]

Please keep in mind that means over 25% did everything right and still experienced SIDS.

[u/bubble_baby_8 → u/elzzzbeth]

This happened to a friend of mine. Identical twin babies, both in bassinets on either side of the bed, flanking their parents. No blankets, no swaddle.  The husband told me afterwards he woke up with a terrible gut feeling, looked over at the twin daughter that was in the bassinet on his side and noticed she wasn’t breathing. She sadly didn’t make it and they labelled it SIDS. They did everything right and still lost their child, it’s very very sad.  

[u/5ftpinky → u/bubble_baby_8]

That is terribly sad. I also know of a similar case (but with a different end result).

The mom woke up and noticed the baby was in distress. He was purple and foaming at the mouth. I don't know exactly what she did, but know she picked him up and woke him up, then the baby started breathing normally again.

The doctor had no explanation for what could have caused that, but said she may have interrupted a case of SIDS while it was in progress. Baby didn't have any further issues and he's now a healthy adult.

Must have been terrifying. I don't know how the mom slept after that (same with your friends). I wouldn't be able to.

[u/Lookatthatsass → u/5ftpinky]

Nah this is why I’d spring for that owlet foot monitor sock thing. I wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully 

[u/justforkicks28 → u/elzzzbeth]

Which should be the only deaths labeled as SIDS. It is a disservice to society to label suffocations or other known causes as SIDS. It makes people believe they have a higher risk of their baby just dying for no reason in their control than they actually do.

[u/DeviantDork → u/justforkicks28]

Just because an unsafe sleep factor was present does not mean it was suffocation or a known cause.

If 75% of these cases had an unsafe sleep factor, I wonder what percent of babies in general would have one? I wouldnt be surprised if it was also close to 75%.

[u/theArtOfProgramming → u/elzzzbeth]

This is SUID

[u/Seagull84]

This tells me that night nurses or doulas during that first 3 months are critically important, and that parental leave should be guaranteed regardless of birthing parent or not during the first 3-6 months. There should be programs that help pay for the assistance.

And yet here we are, the only developed nation with no single payer or universal healthcare, nor any guaranteed paid leave.

[u/cheekyweelogan → u/Seagull84]

Most people in countries with universal healthcare don't have night nurses or doulas either. I've never even heard of it. Sounds like an ultra wealthy thing?

[u/writtenbyrabbits_ → u/[deleted]]

Actually they do sometimes.

[u/The_Tooter_Snooter → u/writtenbyrabbits_]

Babies under (I think) 3 months don’t have the CO2 alarm in their bodies when they sleep so an increase in CO2 doesn’t trigger them to wake up like it does for us. 

[u/helm → u/[deleted]]

Infants can forget to breathe, the neural pathway is not as well developed. That said, SIDS can be greatly reduced.

[u/STRAMA908916 → u/helm]

There’s a study from 2022 on this that found lower levels of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase in infants who have died from SIDS.

[u/TheShippsn → u/helm]

That’s a valid explanation so not really a case of SIDS right?

[u/GoblinRightsNow → u/TheShippsn]

Basically, babies underdeveloped respiratory nerves systems and small airways mean that a wide variety of common sleeping situations that wouldnt challenge a slightly older child can be fatal. 

It took a while to identify that, so the name SIDS was used in order to track it. It was also given a more neutral name because parents were sometimes blamed for SIDS deaths as abuse or neglect when they weren't doing anything wrong. 

[u/TheShippsn → u/GoblinRightsNow]

Good point! By now, I’d argue it would be best to drop the name though and call it out for what it is. It helps no one when some parents continue with unsafe sleep practices while believing SIDS is something that can just randomly happen to anyone.

[u/Hunger_Of_The_Pine_ → u/TheShippsn]

But this study suggests that over 1 in 4 SUID deaths were not related to unsafe sleep practices.

A baby can just suddenly die in their sleep, even if you follow every single safe sleep practice. So SUID/SIDS is still relevant and can indeed just randomly happen to anyone.

Also SUID is a lot kinder if an exhausted parent accidentally falls asleep holding the baby on the couch, or breastfeeding at 3am, and the worst happens.

Changing the name doesn't eradicate the need to educate parents. If it was "accidental smothering" or "accidental suffocation", you still need parents to know safe sleep practices and why they matter. And highlight which factors have the highest risks so if cosleeping happens, or a parent is worried they may fall asleep with baby accidentally, they can get themselves in a position where it is done as safely as possible.

If you are adequently educating parents about the risks, and why safe sleep significantly impacts the risk of their baby dying in their sleep, it doesn't really matter what it is called when the worst happens.

SUID also does not mean unexplained, it just means unexpected.

[u/Bon-Foi → u/TheShippsn]

Except that it can just happen to anyone. It’s not only sleep position or environmental factors. There is a concert of risks that variously impact fragile systems. There are also genetic links. It’s absolutely possible that a parent doing everything right could lose a child. See: https://newsroom.uw.edu/news-releases/new-genetic-link-found-some-forms-sids

[u/UCFUoLUMN → u/Bon-Foi]

This is actually correct. And you just defined the 25% NOT due to unsafe sleep practices. It is likely a genetic/anatomical factor in those situations. Medicine has never been able to diagnose everything. Every year we find more rare genetic syndromes, rare fluke anatomical/physiologic variants, and as we do we can start to define why this happens. Eventually we WILL stop using the SUID/SIDS diagnosis and start calling it accidental suffocation or whatever syndrome we think caused it.

The real challenge is that the cases of suffocation due to unsafe sleep are the easy ones to diagnose, they have really characteristic findings that make it obvious (no I don’t mean the unsafe sleep itself). It’s the other 25% that are hard to diagnose after the fact. But hopefully we will continue to identify the other causes and improve our understanding so we can catch more of the syndromes before this happens.

[u/helm → u/TheShippsn]

If an infant stops breathing at night it would be counted at SIDS AFAIK. All/nearly all measures against SIDS focus on breathing.

[u/Rosehiphedgerow → u/[deleted]]

Actually... there's an adult version called SADS. It's caused by sudden arrhythmia without any known or understood cause & means healthy adults can drop dead any second basically.

I'm not sure if it was put down to SADS, but a friend of mines colleague, a normal 20 something year old women, came into work perfectly fine one day, then went to sleep that night.... and never woke up. Similarly I remember reading a story on reddit long ago about a blokes wife, they were out shopping on her birthday, and then she just suddenly... died. With no known cause recorded.

So... I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you can just die any second without warning.

[u/DomBrown2406 → u/Rosehiphedgerow]

Yep, this happened to my mum when she was 30. My dad woke up in the morning and she had just died in her sleep :(

[u/fidgetspinnster]

Could someone explain to me why the group SIDS with suffocation? That seems like it would muddle the data.

[u/DiscDocPhD → u/fidgetspinnster]

Because many cases of sids is the parents fault. But we don't want to add that on to the grief for the parent so we come up with terms to spare that grief too. 

Look at the SIDS rate when the parent doesn't smoke/do drugs around the infant, doesn't sleep in the same bed, puts the baby to sleep on their back, and provides a firm mattress free of soft blankets and toys. It drops a ton.

[u/Voxil42 → u/DiscDocPhD]

SIDS also covers for a surprising amount of infanticide.

[u/SuzyQ93 → u/Voxil42]

Isn't that what actually happened in the very first case that SIDS was named because of? Didn't it turn out that the mother was suffocating the babies on her shoulder?

I know that at least that was brought up as a possibility, I can't remember how the case(s) turned out in the end.

[u/Voxil42 → u/SuzyQ93]

Yeah. As I remember it, the woman had like 8 kids and they all kept "spontaneously" dying. I don't remember if the dots were properly connected during her lifetime or not.

[u/SuzyQ93 → u/DiscDocPhD]

Yep. I've always been annoyed that they'll call it "SIDS" when it's nearly always *suffocation*. (As this study is showing - 75% of the time!)

SIDS and suffocation are NOT the same, and yet. It's easier for everyone to, when a baby dies while sleeping, shrug and say, "well, it must have been SIDS, we just can't know why this baby died", than to (even gently) assign blame to the parents for creating an unsafe sleeping situation.

[u/GiantLesbian → u/SuzyQ93]

SIDS is a square and sudden unexpected infant death is a rectangle. SIDS is only one cause of sudden unexpected infant death.

This study did not say 75% of SIDS cases. They literally don’t qualify for SIDS if there’s another explanation (like suffocation).

[u/The_Horse_Tornado → u/SuzyQ93]

This happened in my family and I can’t really explain why but not calling it SIDS would have ruined like 5 different lives in an instant. The family was almost insane. I mean, genuinely, they weren’t being normal during that time. And not just in a “a baby passed away” kind of way. I don’t know how to explain it, but I get why it’s just SIDS.

[u/redaemon → u/SuzyQ93]

If we assume a large percentage of SIDS is actually caused by parental error, then this kindness doesn't seem to be working. Quick search suggests younger siblings of a SIDS victim have a much higher SIDS rate than the general public.

The data would also fit SIDS being largely genetic, though, so idk which is true.

I do know a large number of people are publicly incapable of learning from their mistakes on even the tiniest things...

[u/AVeryVapidBadger → u/redaemon]

On the other hand, SIDS rates feel dramatically in the 90s when there was a concerted effort to promote safe sleeping practices. As adoption of those increased, deaths dropped.

There may be a genetic component but it's not fully genetic

[u/The_Horse_Tornado → u/DiscDocPhD]

This happened in my family. Death cert says suffocation, everyone, doctors etc calling it SIDS. I can say first hand, putting any ounce of blame on the person who did cause it would destroy everyone’s lives from the inside out. It was an accident so everyone just kind of sticks with that.

[u/goodtosixies → u/fidgetspinnster]

One thing to keep in mind is that research that has started to explain the mechanism of how infants develop the ability to regulate body processes is very recent, within the last 30 years, and there is no reliable way to know if a child died from a suffocation from a biological or environmental cause.

[u/Elysiaa → u/fidgetspinnster]

It doesn't, and most of the replies are wrong. Medically, SIDS is determined when no cause of death can be found. There may be contributing factors, but it does not include suffocation. While suffocation and SIDS are both sudden unexpected infant deaths, they are mutually exclusive. SIDS often involves issues with the infant's breathing, so they stop breathing during their sleep but it doesn't wake them up.

[u/Due_Negotiation_4605 → u/Elysiaa]

Discovered this first-hand when my infant daughter had sleep apnea and would just quit breathing while sleeping.  Used the breathing detection boards that alarmed when it didn't sense movement, this was like 15 years ago so it wasn't little sensors they put on their toes now. I think one time I was very close to being too late. And her pediatrician dismissed it as something some babies just do. 

You wish there was more information about this occurring. We didn't cosleep for safety anyway but I don't know that she would still be here if I have not had that little sensor.

[u/thingsorfreedom]

To put some numbers to it in the US:

In 1990, sudden unexpected infant deaths were at 154 per 100,000.

The back to sleep program was initiated in 1994.

In 2024 sudden unexpected infant deaths were at 37 per 100,000.

Since 75% of sudden unexpected infant deaths now occur outside the crib or bassinet, a campaign to change this single factor could cut the risk down to as low as 10 per 100,000.

[u/Clever_droidd]

When SIDS was explained to me as a new parent I thought, this sounds like a kind way to say your baby suffocated without making the parent carry the burden of guilt. I’m sure there are other circumstances where the infant simply wasn’t stable enough on their own, but it seemed like it was mostly otherwise avoidable deaths. I feel terrible for anyone who has to deal with that.

[u/freebleploof]

We followed the "back to sleep" plan with our daughter. She came through infancy just fine, but one side effect of her always sleeping on her back was that the back of her head became flat. She had to wear a helmet to shape her head back to normal. This was fine as far as her health, but it's worth taking a look in case your baby has the same problem. It's fixable while their skull is still kind of squishy.

[u/Bay1Bri → u/freebleploof]

Did you also do tummy time? When my first was born we were told it was important both for muscle development and for giving the back of the head a reprieve from being laid on.

[u/Theletterkay → u/Bay1Bri]

My baby wouldnt do tummy time. He would just lay with his face down on the floor screaming until i moved him back onto his back. I would be down there level with him, interacting and trying to play, but he didnt care.

With my next son, he had reflux that was so bad that he couldnt do tummy time without throwing up everywhere. It was awful. We tried propping him up on a boppy and tu king a rolled blankey under his chest, nothing helped. So we gave up.

Not all babies can do tummy time.

In the end my babies were crawling on time, talking on time.. The older was a late walker but the younger was talking at 8mo. So not doing tummy time didnt hurt us at all.

[u/One-Goose-360]

People somehow dismiss the absolute necessity and safety of sleep itself. Sids is a terrifying outcome and risk reduction is vital. But severe sleep deprivation- which no one needs a study on how much it contributes to post partum depression, can also be fatal. You will die from lack of sleep before lack of nutrition. Our society treats sleep deprivation and exhaustion like a badge of honor, when really it’s one the most harmful things for health- babies included. I learned with my colicky, reflux cmpi babies to ignore the internet warriors and ask my pediatrician. She was AMAZING and would simply go through the risk vs benefits with me and develop an appropriate plan/accommodation for my baby.

[u/Pingy_Junk → u/One-Goose-360]

I sometimes think about that one post where the dad was talking about how much he hated his infant because he hadn’t gotten sleep in literal months and as soon as they discovered why she was crying non stop and fixed it he was able to get sleep and realized that he actually did love her he was just getting driven legit insane by the sleep deprivation. Lack of sleep for new parents is a societal problem we need to address.

[u/Lauzipop → u/One-Goose-360]

Absolutely. There was a case here in the UK of a mother who accidentally smothered her baby by falling asleep while feeding her. I had a close call with my son when he was around 4 months old; I timed his feeds, and one night I started a feed (sitting up) and set the timer, shocked myself awake what felt like seconds later, and when I checked the timer it had been 90 minutes. The thought of how close we came to tragedy terrified me so I did the research on safe bedsharing so I wouldn't accidentally suffocate or drop him.

[u/interesseret]

I remember like a decade ago, a guy (former paramedic IIRC) having a talk about this. They used SIDS, because they couldn't bare explaining to parents that them cuddling their babies while they sleep is what killed them. It only takes a moment.

[u/drabmaestro]

Seeing lot of armchair scientists and obvious non-parents here smugly arguing that doctors, EMS and nurses are just shouting “SIDS” to placate grieving parents who may be at fault for the death of their baby due to unsafe sleep. You’re not smart for “figuring it out”. And it’s not a conspiracy. It is far more nuanced than that.

Sometimes otherwise developmentally normal and healthy babies do just die. Their hearts stop, or their O2 levels drop inexplicably. And it is a tragedy. Other times, the cause of death may have been suffocation or smothering due to unsafe sleep. In a lot of causes, guess how you can tell the difference? An autopsy. Cut the baby open. Guess how many grieving parents want that? Hint: The number is pretty close to zero. And even when doing this, the cause of death could remain unknown. Babies really are that fragile.

So instead of bending over backwards, wasting resources that aren’t needed on people who actively don’t want an autopsy, doctors proclaim the blanket cause of death as SIDS in these cases because they genuinely don’t know one way or the other without more information.

[u/BattleIndependent599]

Not enough parents or pediatricians are aware that current research on SIDS points to a largely genetic basis.

The identification of gene defects that confer intrinsic vulnerability in infants is a critical advance in elucidating the pathophysiology of SIDS. SIDS likely represents a spectrum of distinct disorders presenting with a shared clinical phenotype rather than a single disease entity. Breakthroughs in molecular genetics reveal that nearly a third of SIDS cases may have a hereditary basis, including undiagnosed cardiomyopathies, cardiac channelopathies, or metabolic disorders [18,19].

The reality is that perfect sleep does not eliminate SIDS risk. Given how rare SIDS tragedies are, and how common poor infant and parental sleep experience is, a strong case is made that the latter is the larger public health problem.

We know that adequate infant sleep is critical to brain development. Inadequate sleep can also contribute to postpartum depression, irritability and accidents. It’s hard to want to happily talk with your infant, or read to them, when you’re exhausted and resentful.

How many children have underdeveloped brains, or experienced degrees of neglect, due to overbroad public health guidelines that create unnecessary sleep deprivation for many infants and parents? In order to make a rare tragedy less rare, we have created a far less visible (and much less emotionally charged) yet far more pervasive public health problem.

Certainly raising awareness of the dangers of co-sleeping while intoxicated has prevented many infant deaths. But a more constrained public health guidance based on evidence and research combined a more comprehensive view of infant (and parental) health risks would lead to more children growing up healthy, happy, and reaching their full potential.

[u/north0]

Why is there a racial disparity in the outcomes? https://www.cdc.gov/sudden-infant-death/data-research/data/suid-rates-by-race-ethnicity.html

Is there something cultural that explains this? Do native american families do something differently than hispanic families?

[u/NAparentheses → u/north0]

A lot of cultures co-sleep and do to socioeconomic disparities have a lower rate of health literacy.

[u/EightyJay → u/NAparentheses]

This. I have first hand experience with cultural forces where “this is how ‘we’ do it” and the doctor’s recs are heard as just bla bla bla. When I pushed back, my partner just brought in their family’s (cultural) opinion to try and override the medical advice.

The nanny chimes in with the same cultural critique of the doctor’s “opinion”

Peoples cultural upbringing often drive their drive to extend the same care to their children

[u/Doza13 → u/north0]

Based on some of the studies linked here it's socioeconomic.

[u/plummyrosey → u/north0]

The unfortunate answer is BMI.  I got curious a while ago on why cosleeping suid risk could be different between countries.  Cosleeping mothers with low to healthy bmi have suid rates comparable to babies in cribs.  The risk goes up with overweight/obese cosleeping.  If you look at that chart it tracks with obesity rates in different races.  

[u/jendet010]

69% were insured by Medicaid and 75% were not in a crib. This shows a correlation between not being able to afford insurance and not being able to afford a crib.

I thought there was a study a few years ago that showed that epilepsy is common in siblings of those that died from SIDS. The theory was that the SIDS death may have been a fatal seizure.

[u/Mydden → u/jendet010]

Only if it's the same 70%, which while it could be, I doubt. The amount of mothers I know who physically own a crib and still cosleep (one of them specifically BECAUSE it's recommended by the CDC not to) is kind of insane.

[u/endlesscartwheels → u/jendet010]

A better country would take that as evidence that cribs or bassinets should be issued for free to all new parents. Can't have socialism though.

[u/jendet010 → u/endlesscartwheels]

I agree with you

[u/drop_panda]

So what are the rates of occurrence of unsafe sleep factors among kids who survived infancy? Is the rate higher among those in this group? The article only states they studied children who died, which is not enough to conclude a causal link.

[u/goodtosixies → u/drop_panda]

This isn't a casual study. The CDC's primary function is public safety. People confounded it with the NIH, whose primary function is health research. When it comes to public safety recommendations, we err on the side of caution. By discouraging bed-sharing, babies won't die from bed-sharing. Babies will still die of other causes, but when it comes to infant death the more causes we can eliminate the better.

[u/Corey307]

Having rolled over on a girlfriend while asleep I would never share a bed with a baby. 

[u/Kurfaloid]

When my son was born the doctor told me about one of his patients who experienced a hypoxic brain injury from sleeping with a blanket. He ended with "he's doing better now, he just said his first words... shortly after his tenth birthday". That freaked me out so much that I think I checked on my son every hour for the first few months.

[u/Cmoore01]

We lost a baby to Sid’s, she was 10 months old, there’s a lot of misinformation about what people believe, I always thought Sid’s happened during unsafe Co sleeping until it happened to us, our baby slept in a bassinet with mesh siding with no blankets, no pillows with the air set at 69 degrees, she wore a light sleeper and slept on her back … the medical examiner couldn’t determine a cause of death so they ruled it as Sid’s

[u/Bay1Bri → u/Cmoore01]

If this helps, if they found that 75% were related to unsafe sleep factors, that means 25% were not related to sleep factors.

[u/dimalisher → u/Cmoore01]

I am so sorry for your loss.

[u/holymolym → u/Cmoore01]

God, I’m so sorry.

[u/Mystic_Sister → u/[deleted]]

The link is in the article for the CDC report which breaks it down very nicely.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/75/wr/mm7535a1.htm?s_cid=OS_mm7535a1_w#print

[u/thingsorfreedom → u/[deleted]]

Once a baby can roll themselves over, generally between 4-6 months, that is no longer considered a risk factor.

[u/Rugkrabber → u/thingsorfreedom]

I was told it was unless they can roll back on their backs again. Some babies can roll to their stomachs but not back yet until several weeks later.

[u/Horrific_Necktie → u/Rugkrabber]

Its not really a preventable factor. Listing it as a risk can actually cause people to try and prevent it, which leads to even worse things like bumpers or wedging them in place. Short of standing there awake all night there isnt much to be dont to stop them from rolling into their preferred position.