New Safe Sleep Guidelines For Babies For First Time In Six Years

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued new safety guidelines to help babies sleep safely. Experts have recommended babies sleep on their backs while in the crib for decades. The agency releasing new guideline for the first time in six years. About 3,500 babies in the U.S. die from sleep-related incidents each year, including sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS, and accidental suffocation or strangulation in bed.

The guidelines are shifting to include additional safe sleep tips for little ones. Dr. Michael Goodstein, who is on the AAP Taskforce on SIDS, says, “You want to avoid anything that’s soft, plush or loose. Babies start to move around, things getting up over their heads, we don’t want overheating we don’t want things to obstruct the nose and mouth that increase the risk of suffocation.”

The AAP says co-sleeping under any circumstances is not safe for infants. Babies should sleep in the same room with their parents for at least six months. They also urge against the use of devices that claim to reduce the risk of SIDS or other sleep-related issues. Finally, you shouldn’t keep babies at a large incline for long periods of time. Their heads can fall forward during sleep, which puts them at risk for suffocation.

All the expert advice is important and serious, but sometimes even the best parents do stuff that isn’t so smart. So our question of the night: what’s the cringiest parenting story you’ve heard?

This panel’s episode features:
WCCB TV’s Morgan Fogarty
WCCB TV’s Kaitlin Wright