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Tuesday, October 07, 2003The study drew on data collected by the federal Consumer Products Safety Commission about suffocation deaths in sleeping children 11 months old or younger and compared the figures for 1980 to 1983 with those from 1995 to 1998. The number of deaths rose from 513 to 883. Deaths in beds, chairs or sofas rose from 152 to 391, and deaths in cribs fell from 192 to 107, the study found. Most deaths outside cribs occurred when children became trapped between mattresses and walls or headboards or when the children were covered by soft bedding that cut off their air supply. The authors break down the numbers even further: The number of reported suffocation deaths in cribs fell from 192 to 107, the number of reported deaths in adult beds increased from 152 to 391, and the number of reported deaths on sofas or chairs increased from 33 to 110. The findings are rather dramatic and should give a heads up to anyone who shares their bed with their children to use extra caution when doing so. It will, however, be sure to draw controversy, as in this online response: Only breastfeeding infants are recommended to share the mother's bed as bottle feeding mothers have been found to treat the infant as another adult in the bed and turn their backs on them in their sleep (amongst other things). Those mean old bottle-feeding mothers. The rest of the response, however, makes valid points about exercising appropriate precaution when sleeping with babies. But the caution should be heeded by both breast-feeding and bottle-feeding mothers. No one can control their movements in sleep, no matter how devoted a mother they are, or what feeding method they choose. posted by Sydney on 10/07/2003 07:58:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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