Sudden Infant Death Awareness Month

October is Sudden Infant Death Awarness Month.

Putting your sweet baby to bed you expect them to wake up smiling or crying loudly in need of a diaper change or to be feed.

But, when a baby unexpectedly passes away in their sleep it is devasting to families. Most often the diagnoisis is Sudden Infant Death, SIDS.

Many times we have no answers as to why this loss occurs. When sudden death does happen:

express your sorrow to the parents
then keep your mouth shut
and your heart open to listen as the family grieves.

Share what you learn about SID’s and possible ways to prevent the un-timely death of baby.

(Quoting prevention stats at an infants funeral is NOT the appropriate time to regurgitate the information on my image above.)

Back to sleep

When I worked in maternity/ newborn nurserry as a nurse in the 1970’s throught 1990’s we were still teaching new parents to put babies to sleep on their tummies in case they spit up. After that we learned that babies should be put to sleep on their backs to help prevent SIDS. This practice has lowered the mortality of infants in the United States.

Unfortunately, not all adults who care for infants are aware of this back to sleep practice. During the month of October, won’t you please share the message to help reduce death of healthy babies?

While many parents have been endorsing co-sleeping that practice is not safe for an infant at all. Do not sleep with your baby in the same bed. Babies can roll out on to the floor. A pillow or blanket can cover their head. An adult can roll over on to a tiny infant.

A better practice is to lay the baby down in its own crib before they go to sleep, not afterwards.

As a child matures this is what you want to have happen: tuck the kids in then they go to sleep. Start the practice of a bed-time routine early early.

I am Malika Bourne the No Non-cents Nanna syaing, “Make good choices.”

Now it is your turn

What have you found to be the least supportive thing to a family to has lost a child?
What can you do support a grieving family?
Do you have any questions or concerns you would like to discuss or have me research in more depth?

Please feel free to sahre this post, PIN or print if you feel it might help some one.

I do have a small favor to ask if you do share. Pleae leave a comment so I have some idea where my work is headed to. Do keep in mind there are some issues of copyright laws that we need to keep updated on when we share the works of others.

Updated9/25/14 7/16/15 1719