160 Texas Babies Die Each Year While Sleeping With Family

November 10, 2009 by Cathy Ribble
Filed under: News

Texas state statistics show that more than 160 Texas babies die each year while sleeping in bed with family. Texas officials are launching a campaign to warn parents of the dangers of sleeping with their babies.

Parents, pediatricians and law enforcement personnel have argued for years about the dangers, bonding and health benefits of infants sleeping with their parents. The opposition claims that the warnings are overly broad.

“I personally feel very strongly that unsafe sleep environments play a role in a substantial number of these unexpected infant deaths,” said San Antonio medical school professor James Lukefahr, the incoming president of Texas Pediatric Society and an expert on child abuse.

“It’s not that parents are bad for wanting to have the baby sleep with them, but that has to be tempered,” said Lukefahr. “If there’s an adult sleeping in the bed, the adult is probably going to have covers and pillows that make it very difficult for that environment to be safe for a baby.”

According to Texas Child Protective Services and the Department of State Health Services, there were 167 deaths from accidental suffocation or strangulation, or without a clear explanation, while babies shared beds during the year that ended on August 31. The previous year there were 165 deaths. Last month alone, there were 20.

According to a Dallas Morning News analysis of the data, nearly 9 out of 10 such deaths in Texas in the past two fiscal years involved a baby 6 months or younger. 72 of the 334 deaths over the two-year period occurred on a Saturday night.

While statistics only show a handful of deaths over the same time period where parents are intoxicated, it is clear that drinking any amount of alcohol is likely to cause parents to enter into a deeper sleep and create a more dangerous situation for the child.

The statistics include deaths while young children shared sofas, couches, cots, futons and water-beds with family members. These deaths have not been definitively ruled to be caused by bed sharing according to Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins.

To read further about both pros and cons and a specific list of do’s and dont’s, read Dallas Morning New article, ‘Co-sleeping’ with baby can be deadly, state warns parents.

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Tags: Child Protective Services, Child Protective Services spokesman, Dallas Morning News, Department of State Health Services, incoming president, James Lukefahr, medical school professor, Patrick Crimmins, San Antonio, spokesman, Texas, Texas Pediatric Society, United States

Comments

One Comment on "160 Texas Babies Die Each Year While Sleeping With Family"

Concerned Parent on Wed, 11th Nov 2009 5:02 pm

Perhaps these deaths have more to do with the fact that these children are vaccinated to the extreme, thus suppressing their immune systems which are underdeveloped until age 3, and then sleep on a mattress (or couch) that is FULL of toxic chemicals. I doubt that angle has been investigated, though studies in New Zealand are showing that this could be a problem and a possible cause of SIDS; further investigation is needed, if only the self-proclaimed “experts” would stop the denial of such a possibility because they believe (or are paid to say) that vaccines are “safe” and that the chemicals that comprise fire blocker materials on a mattress are “safe.” There are rules for cosleeping with your children. If you follow these simple rules, cosleeping has many benefits. Parents much have separate blankets. The bed must not be against a wall. Both parents must be light sleepers; if either parent has reason to sleep too soundly (illness, medication, etc), then cosleeping is not recommended. And yes, death can result if you do not follow these rules. Cosleeping has wonderful benefits for the child(ren) if it is done in a safe sleeping environment.

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