Frustration...

A while back I had predicted that the safety commission would recall Infantino slings. After reading the report today and after spending hours immersed in infant death statistics in the last couple of weeks, I'm having a hard time with the recall. Not because it is a bad thing to expect safe products, but because I believe that if we want to save babies, the mass media needs to focus on the big killers as well. 14 babies have died in the last past several year in slings. In 2005 alone 515 babies died by strangulation and suffocation in adult beds, another approximately 250 babies died in suffocation related deaths, and 1271 died of unknown causes. (typically the unknown causes is when it looked like SIDS except the baby was in an unsafe sleeping environment) From the reports I've read the SUIDs rate has been on the rise each year since 1999. Each year about 4500 babies die suddenly and unexpectedly. About half of these are SIDS and half are SUIDs. Of the SUIDs deaths, it is estimated that 80-90 percent died in unsafe sleep environments (on soft bedding, in adult beds, on their stomachs, with loose blankets...). That is about 1870 babies who's lives may have been saved if everyone, including the media would shout from that mountain tops that safe sleep environments for babies will save lives. The statistics are clear - now our nation must actually believe it and change our habits. After becoming a mother I now know that it is not as simple as "just do it" - exhaustion and doing anything so your baby will sleep are real threats to a safe sleep environment. Even worse some health care workers, infant care takers and parents don't have the information to make good decisions about an infant's sleep environment. But the risks are real - at least 5 more babies will live each night in America if we protect them while they sleep.

http://www.firstcandle.org/new-expectant-parents/about-sids-suid/
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/24/baby.sling.deaths/
http://wonder.cdc.gov/