Somewhere in the first few foggy weeks after birthing my baby, true exhaustion set in. Like torture-level, can’t-go-on, will-do-anything-to-sleep-for-an-hour levels of exhaustion. The doctor said the baby had colic, which meant nothing in terms of improving our situation, other than putting a name to it, as we trudged back home with another sleepless week in our future. We weren’t eating real meals, my husband had gone back to work, the days were long and the nights even longer.
And while a recall—and its associated statistics—is always scary, and maybe even guilt-inducing, I’m grateful for the opportunity to evaluate and take stock of what we, as parents, can do to prevent further incidents.
This was our third child, and I’d been a parenting writer for years; I considered myself extremely educated on best practices for babies. But something desperate happens in the middle of the night. Suddenly anything that will help your wailing child sleep seems worth considering. I believe this is why so many sleep devices, often on an incline, have become a baby shower staple, friends swearing by them as lifesavers as they give them to the mom-to-be.
It was last year’s recall of the popular Fisher Price Rock ’n Play that woke parents up to the idea that these inclined rockers and bassinets perhaps weren’t such a good idea. And while a recall—and its associated statistics—is always scary, and maybe even guilt-inducing, I’m grateful for the opportunity to evaluate and take stock of what we, as parents, can do to prevent further incidents.
The Rock ’n Play is a slightly inclined sleeper; some models have an automatic rocking motion, while others are stationary. Mine was honestly the only way I got a shower in those early days, with each of my three sons loving the Rock ’n Play in turn. I remember the desperation in the middle of the night to get my baby to sleep and the agonizing 3 a.m. research on just how dangerous it is to let the baby sleep in the only place he would; whether sleep deprivation — his or mine — might be worse. But the evidence is clear: Over 30 infants have been killed by the Rock ’n Play, mainly from suffocation after rolling over while they weren’t buckled in. The Rock ’n Play really wasn’t meant to house a baby overnight, especially not after three months of age, but many parents used it for this purpose. 4.7 million, in fact.
It turns out that, while we all know that infants need to be placed on their backs, anything with an incline goes against the government’s “Safe to Sleep” campaign, which promotes safe sleep for babies: The baby should be alone in a crib or bassinet, on a flat surface, with no blankets, pillows, or toys, and in a structure that is not in the parents’ bed (“bed sharing”) but rather elsewhere in their room. Last week, a government warning was issued for yet another inclined contraption, the SwaddleMe by Your Bed infant sleeper; the company has refused to recall its product.
According to the Consumer Reports investigation, a variety of inclined sleepers have been linked to at least 73 deaths and more than 1,000 incidents, including serious injury. The investigation went on to answer the question that parents have been wondering about the dangers: “Research shows that the products—which are designed to put babies to bed at an incline between 10 degrees and 30 degrees—are unsafe because they can allow an infant’s head to slump forward and interfere with breathing, leading to suffocation and death. In October 2019, the CPSC voted to move forward with a proposed ban of all infant inclined sleepers after a study commissioned by the agency found they posed significant risks.” The risk, also called “positional asphyxiation,” is often the cause of those terrifying stories we reluctantly read about a baby who died napping in the car seat or in a favorite baby swing.
If I’m lucky enough to have a fourth child, I will be following the recommendations much more specifically than I did the last three times.
Another reason parents sometimes use an inclined sleeper is because they may have been (misleadingly) advised that it will help with reflux and/or babies spitting up. However, the semi-inclined position of car seats, swings, and inclined sleepers has actually been found to worsen reflux, according to pediatricians. Instead, parents are advised to pursue the root cause of the reflux and to rest assured that reflux often resolves itself after a few months. In addition, holding a baby completely upright will help rather than using a semi-inclined position.
We all hear about the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but positional asphyxiation is different from a typical SIDS death. The CDC distinguishes between the causes: 3,600 babies died in 2017 from sudden unexpected infant death syndrome (SUIDS), which includes multiple causes. 1,400 of the deaths were from SIDS, 1,300 were from unknown causes, and 900 were from accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed, including the inclined sleeper concerns of positional asphyxiation.
As a parent reading this, I see scary numbers but also concrete steps I can take for prevention, especially regarding that statistic about the 900 accidental suffocations. If I’m lucky enough to have a fourth child, I will be following the recommendations much more specifically than I did the last three times. I won’t be leaving my child to sleep in the car seat if they fall asleep or using the swing or Rock ’n Play as a sleeping device. But what will I actually do in those wee hours of the night? I have no idea.
Author Georgia Garvey wrote a passionate column for the Chicago Tribune in the weeks after the Rock ’n Play recall, pleading with doctors to stop recommending what not to do and to answer the questions parents everywhere have now: What will replace the inclined sleepers? When will the subject of real sleep solutions become less taboo? Safely holding your baby all night is not a plausible option.
Garvey writes, “If doctors and researchers want to decrease the number of sleep-related infant deaths, they need to spend less time issuing ‘don’t’ lists and more finding other safe methods of putting babies to sleep and keeping them that way for longer stretches of time. Parents wouldn’t use risky devices if they didn’t work and if they weren’t desperate to get some rest.” I hear you, Georgia, and I and my future babies are waiting as well—for their safety and for my sanity.
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