PHOENIX — Arizona has had a spike in the number of young children who die because of the way — and where — they’re put to bed, a new report shows.
Eighty-five infants died last year due to what are called “unsafe sleep conditions,” the Child Fatality Review Program found. That’s a 30 percent increase from the prior year.
And it also comes despite multi-year efforts by the state Department of Health Services to educate parents.
The numbers show much more may need to be done, said Dr. Mary Rimsza, a pediatrician.
Of particular note is the conclusion in the report that most sleep deaths are preventable.
Fully half are caused by “co-sleeping,” where children are in bed with their parents. “They usually suffocate,” Rimsza said.
“And they suffocate because the bed’s too soft and there’s other materials in the bed, some blankets and pillows,” she continued. Other times there are other people in the bed “and they roll over on them and suffocate them.”
Rimsza had a simple message: Don’t do it.
The situation is most critical in children who are very young, Rimsza said.
“This happens almost exclusively in kids under a year — and usually under four months, because that when they can’t roll over,” she said.
The solution, said Rimsza, is continuous education.
“There’s new parents every day,” she said. “They may hear from others that certain sleep positions are OK or they just may not think about the risk of the issue or understand it.”
Rimsza said research in the last decades has shown that what used to be written off as unexplained “sudden infant death syndrome” or even “crib deaths” were really suffocations.
“The best situation is to have them in a crib, bassinet, Pack ‘n Play, whatever, (with a) flat, hard surface,” she said. The sleeping area also should be free of toys and other clutter, she said.
The new report also found:
- A big decline in motor vehicle crash deaths between 2013 and 2014.
- Child suicides increased from 25 in 2013 to 28 in 2014.
- Fewer children killed in homicides.
- More drowning deaths.
