For more than 20 years, experts recommend that parents put their babies to sleep supine, head tilted.
They recommend it that way because it has been seen that there are fewer cases of sudden death syndrome and that it is, therefore, the safest way to sleep.
Although it has been recommended for so long, a recent survey reveals disturbing data: there are still many babies who sleep on their stomachs.
"But if you don't know what babies can suffer a sudden death"
Often, when recommendations are given about sudden death, someone says they don't make sense because there are actually babies who are at risk of dying and babies who don't have it, and think that those who are at risk of dying will do it anyway. , and that those who have no risk of death will not do so in any case.
The reality is that there is often talk of sudden death when what happened is a suffocation in reality, so the recommendations are the same for one thing as for the other, because It is not always known which babies die from suffocation or sudden death.
In addition, given that there are factors that can increase the risk, we must exercise caution with all the babiesprecisely because we do not know which babies are most at risk of sudden death.
The latest data in the US
Nothing hopeful. This could summarize the data obtained in a recent study done in the US, if we take into account that it has been more than twenty years since it has been disseminating the recommendation to position babies, to sleep, on his back, and not sideways or upside down.
And it is that thanks to this recommendation the sudden death rate was reduced by more than 50% in the 90s. Since then the figures have remained relatively stable, but they are still high if we compare them with other countries such as Japan (twice as high), also industrialized.
However, this recent research published in Pediatrics, of which Medline speaks, throws some unflattering data: after consulting more than 3,300 mothers with babies from 2 to 6 months of age (age of maximum incidence and risk of SIDS), 77% said they usually placed their babies to sleep on your back while only 49% said they always did.
The "always" is important
According to the researchers, that was a key question, that of the forever, because it has been seen that Sleeping on your stomach is even more dangerous in babies who are not used to doing it.
Apparently, the mothers explained that they had certain reluctance to turn them on their backs because of the risk of regurgitation and drowning. However, experts say that due to the anatomy of the babies' airways, and that they sleep with their heads tilted, there is no major danger Than sleeping in another position.
Others confessed that they had received the recommendation to turn them upside down because so they slept more deeply, something that many mothers and fathers confirm by explaining that they wake up less like this. The problem is that sleeping on your stomach is much more dangerous.
In addition, they realized that the parents' environment is very important. And is that when couples have close people taking the prone position (face down) for granted, the chances of your baby sleeping like this are 12 times higher.
Efforts should be generalized.
Therefore, they conclude that when offering information about the risk of SIDS, they cannot focus only on the parents of babies, but should try to cover the rest of the population.
The Dr. Eve Colson, lead author of the study explains it like this:
We must include all possible people in our educational efforts. Often, the important people around people influence the sleep practice they choose for their babies (...) Even some health care professionals are not convinced of recommendations for safe sleep (and turn them upside down in hospitals). We must definitely do a better job. Babies are safe when they sleep on their backs.
Stay with that phrase, which sums it up: Babies are safe when they sleep on their backs.
