Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Here's something most parents have probably done - cuddled up sleeping right
next to their baby. But a new anti co-sleeping ad from the
Milwaukee Health Department is causing some controversy.
We want to show you this. The poster shows a baby lying in bed next
to a large butcher knife with the headline "Your baby sleeping next to you can be
just as dangerous."
The Health Department's message - bed sharing with parents is not safe - but
some say these ads go too far.
Joining us now for more on this is Dr. David Nelson.
He's a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown
University Hospital. Doctor thanks for being with us.
My pleasure.
I have to say when I first saw this ad I was taken aback.
My first impression - it goes too far.
Tell us what your reaction is.
Well this is the first time I've actually seen the ad.
I guess I leave it to others to decide whether that's the proper marketing to use.
That said I think the message about co-sleeping is very important and I think
many parents don't realize the dangers involved in co-sleeping so any way that
the message can get across I think is the way to go.
And just to be fair how the ad came to be apparently Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett
said when he first saw the ad he was also concerned they were too provocative
and raw but he says he gets these calls about babies who die in the beds of their
parents and he says he shudders when he gets these calls saying it's just such
a preventable death.
I'm curious if you know what the rate of infants dying because of sleeping in bed
with their parents is nationwide.
I don't think we know the exact rate but what we do know is that since the early
‘90s when we started the "Back to Sleep Campaign" advocating for babies to sleep
on their backs the rate of SIDS or unexplained death has gone down dramatically.
But over the last several years it's leveled off and actually risen some and it
looks like form the data that we have that the increase is due to some things like
co-sleeping, like having certain kinds of toys or blankets or stuffed animals in
cribs, bumpers, mattresses that don't fit, having babies sleep on soft surfaces like
water beds or pillows - those kinds of things all contribute to the somewhat
slight but real increase in deaths we've seen from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
So is the issue that parents are inadvertently rolling over on top of the
babies or is it, as you said, a matter of all the covers and the mattress that may
not be fit for an infant? It's both actually - there have been
instances of parents rolling, being very tired, rolling on an infant and really not
knowing that they did it, there have been instances of babies suffocating because of
soft pillows or blankets, so it's really a whole group of things that cause this
and the sad thing, in many ways, is this is all preventable and we should be seeing
really virtually no deaths of babies because of sleep issues.
And Dr. Nelson let me just ask one quick question here - I have with my children,
those first three months at least are very, very sleepless, it can be so tough
especially if you're nursing.
We put our kids on a foamed incline with bolsters on either side so they couldn't
roll over so they were on their back to sleep. Is that an alternative for parents or
is there any other alternative very quickly? Not really - there are many things in the
market, none of them seem to really be all that effective so our recommendations -
pediatricians and the American Academy - is that these things to prevent it or to
keep babies on their side or whatever really aren't very effective and shouldn't
be used. Okay, very good, so just don't put
them in bed with you at all. Correct.
Doctor, thanks for being with us. We appreciate your insight on this.
My pleasure.