Safe Sleep for Babies
Kim Murphey, CARE for Children community relations coordinator, Leah Burke, clerk typist and Debbie Olsen, RN from the PA Department of Health, and Erica Soble, CARE for Children, special instructor for birth to three early intervention program, look over one of twenty portable cribs that were part of a grant Safe Kids McKean received from Safe Kids Pennsylvania.
Safe Kids McKean is working with Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Cribs for Kids program to distribute the portable cribs to families in need in McKean County.
Cribs for Kids provides families with low incomes a portable crib to promote safe sleep environments for infants. To be eligible for a crib the family must: reside in McKean County; family income must meet WIC guidelines; the child must be under one year of age; and be referred to the program by a social services agency.
The effort is part of the Back to Sleep Campaign which promotes providing safe sleep environments for babies and the recommendation of placing healthy babies on their backs to sleep to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
SIDS has been associated with unsafe baby sleep practices.
For more information please contact the PA Department of Health in Bradford or CARE for Children, the lead agency for Safe Kids McKean.
(Photo courtesy of CARE for Children)
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Comments
- Social skills delays at 6 months (Dewey, Fleming, et al, 1998)
- Motor skills delays at 6 months (Dewey, Fleming, et al, 1998)
- increased rates of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) (Corvaglia, 2007)
- Below norm AIMS scores (Majnemer, Barr, 2005)
- Milestone delays (Davis, Moon, et al., 1998)
Considering that the SIDS Back to Sleep Campaign Timeline and Demographics Parallels the Autism Epidemic Timeline and Demographics and that many of the symptoms of Autism overlap with side effects of Back Sleep I think more research should be done on that.
Demographics of Parents who adhere to "Safe Sleeping Practices":
Older, Higher Socio-economic status
Demographics of Parents who have children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (not Classical Autism):
Older, Higher Socio-econmic status
Timeline of SIDS Back to Sleep Campaign:
Beginning in early 1990's and ramping up through 2008
Timeline of Autism Epidemic:
Beginning in 1990's and ramping up through 2008
Side Effects of SIDS Back to Sleep Campaign include:
Motor Skills Delays, Social Skills Delays, GER
Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms include:
Motor Skills Delays, Social Skills Delays, GER
Correlation does not equal causality but these are some interesting coincidences.
Considering the physiological reason that Back Sleep prevents SIDS is because it prevents Slow Wave Sleep (Stage 3/4 NREM sleep) this is also interesting. Scientsts know that Slow Wave Sleep is when memory consolidation and plasticity takes place in infants. Without Memory Consolidation and plasticity during their first year of life many of these infants end up eventually being diagnosed with autism.