When my first son, Jack, was born 16 years ago in London, his sleeping was all backwards. He slept like a log during the day and when the clock struck midnight, he was wide awake and screaming until 7 a.m. Among the many things I did, I gave up on the back-sleeping (suggested to prevent the SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome), and put him to sleep on his belly. My doctor kind of condoned it. Or rather, he did not insist that I do the back sleeping. He pointed to a few studies and said that no one really knows.
Wow, was I stupid. And lucky. According to a new Yale study, way too many parents are like me-they get wishy washy advice from their pediatricians. They are not insisting on back-sleeping so parents let their babies sleep on their tummies.
Dr. Eve Colson, a pediatrician at Yale University, found that about 72 percent of white mothers and 58 percent of African-Americans mothers put their babies to sleep on their backs-which she thinks is a dangerously low number. Her study is published in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
Dr. Colson blames doctors--in part. "It's really important that the doctor give advice that babies should only sleep on their backs," she said. "They can't waver. It's important for parents to know that back-sleeping is protective." She doesn't even like the side pillows, that claim to be safe and allow babies to sleep on their sides.
Some people worry that babies can choke on their spit-up if they sleep on their back, "but that just doesn't happen," said Dr. Colson. "I like the idea of emphasizing safe sleeping."
Her study included a survey of 1,000 families, tracked down after a 1994 "Back to Sleep" campaign. "We looked at the behavior of 15,000 caregivers over the last 15 yeasr and found that, although there was an increase in caregivers following the guidelines, in the last five years the number of people putting babies on their back to sleep has leveled off," said Dr. Colson.
No one really knows what causes sudden infant death syndrome, when babies die within the first year of life for no detectable reasons. Back sleeping, though, lowers the risk according to several studies.
In a way, putting your babies to sleep on their back is akin to wearing a seatbelt or bike helmet. You can go for years without doing it and have a smug attitude as I did that it doesn't really matter, but you really are choosing a dangerous route. As Dr. Colson explained, you are making a choice between comfort and safety. Choose safety.
