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Strollerderby
A mom reads to her daughter.
When Adina Giannelli learned she was pregnant with a daughter she’d name Talya, there were three things of which she was certain. First, despite “less-than-ideal timing,” she would, indeed, have the baby. She also knew she loved the baby. And she knew that she would read to her “gladly and often.”
Giannelli delighted in the guessing game which so many soon-to-be-parents delight in — the one we play when we extrapolate excessive kicking in the womb into evidence that Mama’s carrying a future soccer star. But one thing Giannelli could have never guessed was that in less than a year, she would mourn the death of her bundle of joy.
Does New Year's partying cause SIDS?
A new study out of the University of California — San Diego has found a disturbing pattern in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome cases. The pattern suggests a link between so-called “crib death” and alcohol use among parents of babies.
Analyzing 129,090 SIDS deaths from 1973 to 2006, UCSD sociologist David Phillips found a 33 percent surge on New Year’s Day. This spike in SIDS deaths is beyond the usual rise in SIDS deaths during the winter months and cannot be attributed to weather, blankets and indoor heating.
Rather, Phillips and his team of researchers believe there’s a connection between a SIDS spike and alcohol consumption among the caretakers. They offer three pieces of evidence connecting the two: Continue reading »
Less tummy time, slower development?
An article in Slate outlines the problems that we’re having now that babies aren’t on their tummies enough — delayed motor skills, lower IQ, and even school-related problems like those affecting reading comprehension.
We know the history of back-to-sleep. The campaign started in the 1990′s because back sleeping was associated with a decreased risk of SIDS. And since back-to-sleep was initiated, SIDS deaths have been cut in half, so thankfully most parents continue to follow it.
But tummy time: we know babies don’t like it in the early months. Many doctors stress the importance of it, but one study found that only 55 percent of parents are instructed to do tummy time (even though 90 percent are told about back sleep).
Less tummy time means slower-to-develop motor skills. But, surprisingly, the connection goes beyond just sitting and walking — thinking skills are involved too: Continue reading »
Do you share your bed?
Contrary to popular belief, the term co-sleeping actually describes something most parents do for the first year of life — share their bedroom with their little one before moving him or her into a nursery or separate bedroom.
Co-sleeping does not necessarily mean sharing your bed with your child, although that is how it is often understood, and how Jezebel described it earlier in a post on the “explosive” issue. As evidence of how divisive an issue bed sharing— and/or co-sleeping — is among moms, Jezebel’s Sadie quoted a statement blogger Kirby Desmarais made to the New York Post‘s article on the subject:
Co-sleeping in the U.S. more dangerous?
Co-sleeping with an older child is one thing. But sharing a bed with an infant who can’t wiggle out from under dad’s arm or pull herself free of bedsheets and pillows is quite another. And according to South Australian coroner Mark Johns, parents who do it are risking their children’s lives.
After investigating the deaths of five babies who died while sleeping alongside and adult, Johns says the practice of co-sleeping with infants needs to stop. Continue reading »
Sleep positioners and newborns a bad combo
Today the F.D.A. said that infant sleep positioners pose a suffocation risk and should not be used. The researchers reported that 12 infants have died as a result of the positioners in the last 13 years.
Ironically, the positioners, most of which are flat or inclined cushions with side bumpers, are marketed as helping keep baby on his back, thereby lowering the risk of SIDS. But the government said it had not seen any research supporting this claim. Therefore, the positioners pose only a risk and shouldn’t be used anymore.
I run parenting groups for new moms and a lot of them use the positioners — some are told, even by their pediatricians, to position baby on his side for better sleeping or reflux. But side-sleeping for very little babies is a SIDS risk. Flat on their back only.
What led to the instances of suffocation in these 12 cases? Continue reading »
A new study published in the journal Sleep finds that male babies are more likely than female babies to experience Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, despite the fact that boys are easier to wake up than girls in the first weeks of life. Around 2 or 3 months of age, babies of either gender are just as easily roused.
While SIDS has an indeterminate cause, the risk factors include, “placing a child on the stomach to sleep; allowing a baby to sleep in an overheated room; smoking around a baby or while pregnant; co-sleeping with an infant; overdressing an infant and failing to remove soft bedding/toys from a baby’s bed,” according to CBC News.
Researchers are still unsure why boys are more vulnerable to SIDS, though they do have a theory. Continue reading »
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