Study Finds :Sleeping on
Sofa Can Be Deadly for Babies
MONDAY,
Oct. 13, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- One of the most dangerous places for a
sleeping baby is a sofa, according to a new study.
Of nearly
8,000 infant sleeping deaths in the United States, researchers found that about
12 percent were sofa-related. And nearly three-quarters of those infants were
newborns.
"It
was shocking that one in eight SIDS and infant sleep-related deaths occurs on a
sofa," said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Colvin, a pediatrician at
Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. "Sofas don't even come to mind
when people think of places where infants sleep. The proportion was much, much
higher than I ever could have guessed."
SIDS
refers to sudden infant death syndrome -- an apparently healthy baby's
unexplained death that usually occurs during sleep. Approximately 4,000 babies
die of SIDS each year in the United States, though the rate halved in the early
1990s after pediatricians began encouraging parents to place babies to sleep on
their backs.
The new
study found that infants who died sleeping on a sofa were nearly twice as
likely to die from suffocation or strangulation as babies who died sleeping
elsewhere. Among those infants, 40 percent died due to suffocation or
strangulation, 36 percent had an undetermined cause of death and 24 percent
died from SIDS.
Colvin
and his colleagues looked at more than 7,900 infant sleeping deaths reported
over an eight-year period in 24 states. About half of these deaths occurred in
an adult bed, and one in five occurred in a crib. But the researchers focused
on the approximately 1,000 sofa deaths.
The
findings were published online Oct. 13 in the journal Pediatrics.
The vast
majority of the babies who died on sofas were 3 months old or younger. And
several other characteristics distinguished these deaths from infant sleep
deaths on other surfaces, according to the report.
Babies
who died on a sofa were over six times more likely to be sleeping in a new
place compared to babies who died on adult beds or in their cribs. This implies
that falling asleep on a sofa may have been accidental, said Dr. Cigal Shaham,
an attending physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
"Infants
often end up sleeping on the sofa because one parent is trying to feed the baby
without disturbing the other parent, or they think they will watch TV or do
something while they are up with the baby in the middle of the night, but then
they unintentionally fall asleep out of exhaustion," she said.
The study
also found that babies who died while asleep on the sofa were about twice as
likely to be sleeping with someone else compared to babies who died sleeping in
other places.
"In
nearly 90 percent of the sofa deaths, the infant was sharing the sofa with an
adult," Colvin said. "With such little room and the likelihood that
the infant would have been placed between the adult and the back cushions, it
is not hard to imagine that an infant could become accidentally suffocated by
either the adult or the cushions," he said.
In other
situations, however, the parents or other caregiver may not have realized the
sofa was an unsafe place for a baby as long as they were nearby.
"They
may be trying to work or clean or cook, and they think they can keep an eye on
the baby if the baby is on the sofa," Shaham said. "But the sofa is
so dangerous for infants because it is soft, which means the infant can
suffocate more easily, and it often slopes so babies can roll onto their stomachs,
roll between the couch and the back cushions or even roll off the sofa."
Babies
who died on the sofa were also more likely to have other risk factors for SIDS
or other infant sleeping deaths than babies who died elsewhere, according to
the study.
For
example, the mothers of infants who died on sofas were about 40 percent more
likely to have smoked during pregnancy than mothers of infants who died
elsewhere.
Infants
who died in their sleep on the sofa were more likely to be white and found on
their side -- another SIDS risk factor -- compared to babies who died in other
places.
"Parents
should always remember that SIDS can occur anytime -- during naps or overnight
-- and can occur in any location, whether it's at home, in child care or at a
babysitter's or relative's house," Colvin said. "The ABC's of safe
sleep must always be followed: infants must always sleep Alone, on their Back,
and in a Crib, and Alone means no other people and no pillows, quilts, or other
soft objects."
Shaham
suggested that parents plan ahead and recognize their own limits to avoid
accidentally falling asleep with their baby.
"Parents
need to be aware of their own exhaustion," she said.
More
information
SOURCES:
Jeffrey D. Colvin, M.D., J.D., department of pediatrics, Children's Mercy
Hospital, Kansas City, Mo., and associate professor, pediatrics, University of
Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Cigal Shaham, M.D., M.Sc., F.A.A.P.,
pediatrician, Roxbury Pediatrics, and attending physician, Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles; November 2014, Pediatrics
Last
Updated: Oct 13, 2014
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