Keep Infants Sleeping Safely
KISS is an educational campaign sponsored by the Any Baby Can to increase community awareness on safe sleep tips for infants.
Safe Sleep Guidelines Adopted from the American Academy of Pediatricians:
1. Baby should always be placed on his or her back for sleep. Use supine (on back) positioning only because neither prone (on stomach) nor side sleeping is safe.
2. Use a firm sleep surface, preferably a firm crib mattress covered by a sheet. Soft materials or object such as pillows, quilts, comforters, or sheepskins should never be placed under a sleeping infant.
3. All soft materials, stuffed toys, and loose bedding should be kept out of the sleep environment. If bumper pads are used in cribs, they should be thin, firm, well secured and not “pillow-like.” If blankets are to be used, they should not be loose and should be tucked in around the foot of the crib mattress so that they can only reach to the level of the infant’s chest. Using sleep clothing with no other covering over the infant is recommended.
4. Prevent any exposure to tobacco smoke in the infant’s environment.
5. While co-sleeping (sleeping with your infant) has not been proven to be hazardous in the absence of other risk factors, the adult bed must conform to all the safe standards of the infant beds (especially regarding areas of possible entrapment and soft materials) and the following should be avoided:
a. Never co-sleep on a couch or armchair, it is very dangerous.
b. Never co-sleep with exposure to second-hand smoke.
c. Never co-sleep with multiple bed sharers, especially other children.
d. Never co-sleep with a parent who is overtired or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
e. When possible, encourage room sharing without bed sharing which appears to reduce the risks of Sudden Unexpected Death of an infant (SUDI)*.
6. Avoid over bundling and overheating.
*SUDI - formerly known as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
For more information,
contact Karina Gil at San Antonio Healthy Start, at 207-4725 or visit:
Center for Infant and Child Loss
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - SIDS: Safe Sleep Environment
First Candle: Helping Babies Survive and Thrive
