Parents' Bed Unsafe For Babies, Study Says

September 30, 1999|By CHRISTINE WINTER Consumer Writer

Parents who bring their babies into their beds may be risking the children's lives without realizing it, a new study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission showed on Wednesday.

The eight-year review, released at an American Medical Association Conference in New York, revealed that 515 children younger than 2 have died from being allowed to sleep in adult beds instead of cribs that meet federal safety standards.

"When we see an average of 64 deaths a year for a period of eight years, we have a significant problem," said Ken Giles, a CPSC spokesman.

One of the most surprising and controversial discoveries in the report, which could be especially upsetting to breast-feeding mothers, is the commission's warning that parents should not sleep next to their babies. The study indicated there is a danger of young babies being smothered when they are "co-sleeping" with adults or other children.

Of the 515 deaths reported in adult beds, 121 were attributed to a parent, caregiver or sibling rolling on top of or against the baby while sleeping. More than three-quarters of these deaths occurred to infants younger than 3 months.

The other 394 recorded fatalities were due to entrapment, either from suffocation when the infant's head became wedged between the mattress and a wall or furniture next to the bed; obstruction of the airway when the baby lay face down on a waterbed mattress; or strangulation in rails or openings on beds that allowed a baby's feet to fall through while the head was caught.

The report, the first of its kind by the safety commission, consists of a review of CPSC data from January 1990 through December 1997.

However, the commission reports it is aware of at least 76 additional deaths for 1998 and 1999 to date, almost half of them due to suffocation from co-sleeping.

"We have heard there are popular recommendations that co-sleeping fosters breast-feeding and bonding," Giles said. "That is fine, but when the feeding is finished, the baby should be removed from the adult bed."

Dr. James McKenna, director of the mother-baby behavioral sleep laboratory at Notre Dame University and a pioneer on the subject of shared sleep, said he was "incredibly disappointed" in the results of the CPSC's study.

"Their data is limited and incomplete, and shocking in many ways," he said. "They make sweeping recommendations based on 121 deaths when 15 years of scientific studies document the benefits of co-sleeping.

"All of our studies have shown that mothers become heightened in sensitivity to the movements and sounds of their babies when they share a bed," he said.

He said there can be dangerous conditions in an adult bed, "but these are tragic exceptions to an otherwise healthy practice."

Likewise, the La Leche League was not enthusiastic about the report.

"We don't make any recommendations on sleeping arrangements, but mothers and babies have been sleeping together since the beginning of time, and that is where babies sleep in much of the rest of the world," said Mary Lofton, a spokeswoman for the league, which promotes breast-feeding.

However, Dr. George Cohen, who is editing A Guide to Your Child's Sleep, for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the academy does not consider co-sleeping a good idea.

"We are all for breast-feeding and bonding, but you have to weigh co-sleeping against the physical hazards, especially in the kind of beds we have in this country with soft mattresses and lots of covers and pillows," he said. "The academy does not recommend co-sleeping because of the dangers of rolling over on the baby or squeezing the baby against the wall or bumping it out of bed."

The CPSC has been making recommendations on safe sleep positions for the past several years, mostly related to the dangers of soft bedding.

"Now we are adding a new layer of recommendations," Giles said.

Ann Brown, CPSC chairwoman said, "The only safe place for babies is in a crib that meets current safety standards and has a firm, tight-fitting mattress."

Christine Winter can be reached at or 561-243-6555.

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