FORT WORTH, Texas — Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth has reported seeing 30 infant deaths linked to "unsafe sleep situations" since the beginning of 2022.
Most of the deaths have involved parents or caregivers "co-sleeping" with the infant and then waking up to find the child unresponsive, according to a news release from Cook Children's on Wednesday.
Other factors have included babies being placed on a pillow with a propped bottle, in their crib with a blanket or pillow, or wearing a loose t-shirt that covered their face.
When the infants have been taken to the hospital, they had arrived in cardiac arrest or respiratory failure, the hospital said.
The hospital announced the data in an effort to raise awareness and share risks that might cause such incidents. Read the hospital's full update on co-sleeping deaths, risks and data here.
“Unless it hits home, it doesn’t really resonate," said Candle Johnson, a pediatric nurse practitioner with Cook Children's. "We want them to understand this is a very preventable situation. Let’s be proactive today, so we don’t have to be reactive tomorrow. If a fatality happens, then how do we go forward when we could have prevented it from the beginning?”
Sharon Evans, a trauma injury prevention coordinator, said the unsafe sleeping deaths over the last 15 months have been at a peak since she started working at Cook Children's in 2008.
Death records indicate that over half of the infants who have died recently due to unsafe sleeping methods were Black, followed by babies who were of Hispanic ethnicity. Johnson feels the reasons could stem from a lack of resources, or from learned behavior.
“They say, 'Oh well, my grandmother did it', or my mom’s mom did it, or this is how I learned, or I feel safer when my child is next to me, so it’s more of a learned behavior, then more than knowledge base behavior," said Johnson.
She and other medical experts advise parents and infant caretakers to always place babies on their back to sleep. They say side and stomach sleeping are not safe for infants who can't roll over.
Johnson also says to lie infants on a firm, flat mattress with tightly fitted sheets.
It’s okay to share a room but not a bed with your baby, and that infants should sleep in their own cribs or bassinet. Clear the baby’s sleep area of blankets, pillows, bumper pads and soft toys.
“Our goal here is educating and informing families of what is needed to help them care for their children,” said Johnson.
“It seems to be so much easier to co-sleep when breastfeeding,” Johnson said. “I do advise against that because even though it may be easier, it’s not safe. No one can control their body function once they’re sleeping. When you’re in a deep REM sleep and your infant is next to you, you’re not able to say ‘I won’t roll over on them.’”
Cook Children's said the 30 unsafe sleeping deaths they've seen over the last year were separate from cases of sudden unexpected infant death, which is not preventable. The unsafe sleeping deaths were a result of sleeping positions or circumstances that contributed their deaths.