Goodstein said, when babies sleep in the same room as their parents, the background sounds or stirrings prevent very deep sleep and that helps keeps the babies safe. Room sharing also makes breast-feeding easier, which is protective against SIDS.
Dr. Hauck: We don't know for sure why room-sharing without bed-sharing is protective, but we have some theories. One is that the babies are sleeping more lightly because there is more movement around them (so they cannot get into as deep a sleep, which can contribute to the final pathway in SIDS).
There is no evidence that sleeping with your baby reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as cot death. The best place for your baby to sleep for the first six months is on his back in a cot, Moses basket or crib in the same room as you, rather than in your bed.
In addition, routine (planned) bedsharing is not associated with an increased risk of SIDS (32). Accidental suffocation death is extremely rare among breastfeeding bedsharing infants in the absence of hazardous circumstances (10, 33).
Other factors associated with bed‐sharing include the additional body heat of adjacent adults sharing the bed, the possibility of the infants' head covering with bedding, and use of soft bedding. These factors might contribute to an increased risk of SIDS through overheating or rebreathing of expired air.
The way parents put their children to sleep is learned behavior, passed down from their parents or cultures. Asian families are no different — and their cultural behavior could account for why Asian babies are the least likely to die of SIDS.
Prone sleeping is the single most important risk factor for SIDS. If a baby is swaddled, and placed prone to sleep, that infant has no ability to try to lift or turn his/her head to avoid a potentially dangerous situation where the face is buried in bedding.
SIDS occurs between the first month and before the first year of an infant's life. Infants aged 2-4 months endanger greater risk of SIDS, while most deaths occur in infants during the sixth month of their life6.
The peak incidence of SIDS occurs between 1 – 4 months of age; 90% of cases occur before 6 months of age. Babies continue to be at risk for SIDS up to 12 months.
SIDS usually occurs when a baby is asleep, although it can occasionally happen while they're awake. Parents can reduce the risk of SIDS by not smoking while pregnant or after the baby is born, and always placing the baby on their back when they sleep.
Frequent night waking is thought to be protective against SIDS. Studies of near-miss infants and siblings of SIDS infants show that these babies have fewer night-waking episodes.
More recently, the highest SIDS rates (>0.5/1000 live births) are in New Zealand and the United States. The lowest rates (<0.2/1000) are in Japan and the Netherlands.
When can you stop worrying about SIDS? It's important to take SIDS seriously throughout your baby's first year of life. That said, the older she gets, the more her risk will drop. Most SIDS cases occur before 4 months, and the vast majority happen before 6 months.
White noise reduces the risk of SIDS.
A relatively famous study (famous if you read a lot about baby sleep, so honestly you should be a little proud if you haven't heard of it) showed that babies had a significant reduction in the risk of SIDS if they had a fan in their room.
If you've found that your baby sleeps better in your bed, there are several reasons for that. Here are the most common: Your baby feels safer and more secure, making it easier to fall asleep. Your baby recognizes your face, voice, and touch more easily.
It may be because babies don't sleep as deeply when they have a pacifier, which helps wake them up if they're having trouble breathing. A pacifier also keeps the tongue forward in the mouth, so it can't block the airway.
How often does SIDS occur? SUDI and SIDS are rare and the risk of your baby dying from these is very low. The rate of SIDS deaths has declined in Australia due to safe sleeping campaigns. In 2020, 100 babies in Australia died of SUDI (data from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia only).
In contrast, the increased risk of SIDS associated with excess thermal insulation and bed sharing was less in winter than in summer. Prone sleeping position accounts for about half of the difference between the mortality rate in summer and that in winter.
Most SIDS deaths happen in babies between 1 month and 4 months of age, and the majority (90%) of SIDS deaths happen before a baby reaches 6 months of age.
Findings consistent with SIDS include the following: Serosanguineous watery, frothy, or mucoid discharge from mouth or nose. Reddish-blue mottling from postmortem lividity on the face and dependent portions of the body. Marks on pressure points of the body.
Fortunately, SIDs is rare and the incidence of cot death in India is lower than many other countries including developed countries. No one knows exactly why. The good news is that the growing awareness of correct sleeping positions has reduced the number of cot deaths worldwide.
The chance of SIDS occurring is very low, affecting about 0.0001 percent of infants under a year old in India. The cause or causes of SIDS are not known; however, there are steps you can take to create a safe sleep environment for your baby and to help prevent SIDS.