One statistic reports that a new parent loses up to 1000 hours of sleep during their childโs first year, and 45% reported that a top reason for that lack of sleep was worry about babyโs safety.ย With the latest recommendations from American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and all the recent understanding about the impact ofย sleep on overall health, new parents will need some strategies to survive (and even enjoy your little bundle of joy)!
Review of the recommendations:
The AAP recently issued new recommendations ย to reduce SUIDs (Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths); not long before that, a Penn State studyย showed that up to 93% of parents or caregivers did not always follow the sleep safety recommendations that were in effect at that time.ย So here is a quick review of the new and expanded AAP recommendations and a few suggestions to make it easier for you to become a Safe Sleep Pro.ย ย (As always, specific questions should be directed to your pediatrician or health practitioner.)
AAP 2016 recommendations on creating a safe sleep environment include (but are not limited toโฆ..ย see link above for complete resource):
In addition, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued more specific warnings about ย crib sheetsย โwhich can sometimes be hazardous to babiesโย ย Safety Alert 5137ย describes precautions to ensure a safer environment, including:ย ย making โsure crib sheets fit snugly on a crib mattress and overlap the mattress so it cannot be dislodged by pulling on the corner of the sheetโ and to โnever use an adult sheet on a crib mattress;ย it can become loose and present an entanglement hazard to young children.โ
Getting into the safety habit
As with everything, practice makes perfect, and sleep safety will become a habit โ just like putting on a seatbelt. ย (The suggestions below are not official AAP recommendations, but our suggestions to help you put them into action)
Our perspective:
At QuickZip, we hear from our customers that one piece of safety gear that they had not really thought about as safety gear is the crib sheet, the only item in the crib with your baby. ย In all the research preparing for a new child, it often does not come up.ย Of the approximately 3500 SUIDs deaths in 2014, 25% were due to โaccidental suffocation and strangulation in bedโ (CDC, http://www.cdc.gov/sids/data.htm). ย ย That number is not just a number to us.ย ย We know one of those numbers.ย Tricia, a nurse, lost her baby Isaac at 6 months of age when he got wrapped in a traditional fitted crib sheet.ย His traditional sheet appeared to fit โtightlyโ on the mattress as recommended, but popped off.ย Tricia believes that the regulatory recommendations and alerts do not go far enough to warn parents of this risk. ย She is now a tireless crusader for crib safety.ย ย Happily, she and her husband have two awesome and healthy boys and the youngest is sleeping on QuickZipย because it is a safer alternative, which goes beyond the CPSC recommendation because it wraps all the way around the bottom of the mattress.ย QuickZip also makes safety easy;ย it can be quickly changed by zipping off and on the zip-on sheet without lifting the mattress out of the crib each time.ย Tricia found QuickZip after their tragedy, and she one of our strongest supporters.ย (She even got BabiesRUs to carry our sheets after telling them her story.) We keep Isaac in our hearts and honor his memory by selling safer sheets and by following Triciaโs example in spreading the message of crib sheet safety.ย