The American Academy of Pediatrics has released their new guidelines on SIDS prevention. There are many reasons why these new guidelines fall short, and when I have a bit more time, perhaps this weekend, I will write something about it.
Suffice it to say that corporate interests are clearly
once again playing a role in creating health policy at the good old AAP.
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I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
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14 comments:
Good lord. They are *recommending* pacifiers? Hard to see the logic in that.
Yep. And note that there is NO MENTION of breastfeeding - either its protective role in terms of infection and viruses, or the fact that breastfed babies nurse a lot at night and thus, don't need plastic in their mouths.
-Katie
dont confuse attachment parenters with the facts. I rushed here after my husband (after our own AP nightmare) sent me this story. I knew Katie would be braying about it. because of course, we know, that she knows a lot more than people with medical degrees. sheesh...they know how the body t least respect dualing experts but most attachment parenters are not "experts"...mostly they are people who have gotten away with a very dangerous practice. and when a baby does die from it, no one who knows them wants to be the ones to say "your baby probably died because you believed that you were doing better for him/her by keeping them out of the crib and they would probably be alive if thats where they were" anyone with an opinon can write a book and consider themselves the new expert. people are gullible and they read stuff thinking that someone who acts like they know it all does in fact know it all. and now they have to live with a dead child. because some quasi expert came off like she knew more than their own doctors. .that stupid talking head Lisa Parker said it well: this is the only time these parents can be with their kids. well DUH..if you have no time for your kids except to sleep with them MAYBE YOU SHOULDNT HAVE GOTTEN YOURSELF IN THE STUPID YUPPIE LIFESTYLE WHERE YOU HAVE TO DO THIS ya think? maybe these parents need to make whatever adjustment they need to make so they can have a relationship wtih their kids thats more than just snoozing next to them. but that would be common sense..something in rather short supply. remember these are people who prattle on about how WE dont have any of these diseases in America so WE dont need to vaccinate our children, all the while being so blissfully ignorant that all it takes is one traveler on a plane from Indonesia (where polio is rampant) to put their unvaccinated, breastfed, waldorfschooled, clothdiapered, breastfed, homebirthed, only natural nonplastic organics wil touch MY baby please... GAG....OFFSPRING...into an iron lung.....say no more...
and its interesting how APers quote the AAP when it suits their purposes like not spanking or breastfeeding itself. but suddenly they(the AAP) are a bunch of idiots because they contradict your stupid ideas.
yeah, I read the article and the AP parents quoted in the article sound like morons. "connection with the baby" blah blah blah. like no one ever connected wtih their baby in a crib. NOT. just "go with the feelings". etc etc etc. just denial. complete denial that their actions have anything to do with this if the kid were to die. its bad enough if your child died because of a moment of inattention that could happen to any of us. HOWEVER if the death was a direct result of your having believed wrong information what a thing to have to live with. and i might add...indirect responsility on down the line to the people who recommend such practices.
I think what we need to have happen is for people who have lost children to SIDS after believing the lies of attachment parenting authors...they need to band together in a class action lawsuit against these people. if McDOnalds can be sued (and lose) for stupidity like hot coffee spillage then people who push misinformation and half truths that can cost children their lives most certainly can be held legally accountable. especially if their work is in print. and then maybe they will keep their traps shut.
Ah, yes, we all know that in order to be a good parent we must spend lots of MONEY! Look up AAPs sponsors. It's the baby industry. Gerber et al. It is good for their supporters to say that babies ought to be in a crib!
And what about the study itself? They don't talk about it much, but my husband looked it up last night. It says that the risk factor comes from smoking parents. Well, every piece of serious literature that I've read about the family bed talks about the risk factors that you shouldn't take, like smoking and having too much to drink or being under the influence of other drugs. These sources clearly state that you should not endanger your baby if you have those factors. Really, this is not new news. It's just the big evil corporations needing to pad their pockets again, because crib sales are down.
I thought of you when I saw this story on the news last night. I found the story in my local (Boston Globe) newspaper while I was watching the TV news. As someone who works in research I was concerned about the implications being made about the "family bed." The news stories kept stressing that it was safer to have your infant sleeping in a crib, but there was not one citation of a specific case of SIDS caused by the scenarios they mentioned (i.e. baby rolling between the matress and headboard, parent rolling over on baby, etc). Also, the TV news story came right out and said that there was no discernible link between pacifier use and prevention of SIDS. It could be nothing more than coincidence. The only theory one pediatrician was willing to put forth was that the pacifier actually keeps the child from sleeping too soundly.
However, it is recommended that pacifier introduction for breastfed infants be delayed until one month of age to ensure that breastfeeding is firmly established.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
They do mention breastfeeding here and acknowledge that the pacifier is delayed to ensure the breastfeeding.
True story.
Due to an extremely complicated courtship with my now ex-wife, I raised one of my daughters for several weeks after she was born by myself. (Short version:Mommy and I were together, planned to get married; made baby; split up when Mommy decided to go back to first husband while I was at sea; had baby; I kept baby since hubby #1 had no interest in raising my baby and future ex-wife was more interested in pleasing him than raising daughter. Which was cool with me, since I was the daddy, and wanted to be the daddy.
Now I hadn't heard of attachment parenting at the time, I just knew that in order to continue with life, my daughter had to go where I went. I did get a babysitter for when I went to work, because an aircraft carrier is no place for an infant, but the rest of the time, she was with me. I discovered that you can go anywhere and do almost anything with a newborn. All they do is eat, sleep, and make messy diapers. (By the way, a gym bag makes an excellent diaper bag, and you don't have to worry about the frilly lace making you look, well, less than masculine.) I had a carrier that strapped to my chest, and she rode there while I did chores, went to friends' softball games, went out to movies, grocery shopping or wherever.
She did have a crib in my room, but there were many nights when we both fell asleep after her feeding, and she slept there with me until morning. One of those nights, I rolled over a big lump, and immediately woke up in a panic. I just knew I had rolled over my daughter and squished her flat.
Well, it wasn't her, it was a knot of blankets. After feeding her, I'd put her back in her crib, and then I'd forgotten that I had.
There are two points to this story. First, AP is a parenting style with its own advantages and disadvantages. It certainly worked for me through a rather difficult time, and my daughter and I share a unique bond because of it. Second, when she slept in my bed, I always woke up in the same position I fell asleep in, with her in the crook of my arm. I knew she was there, even while asleep.
I am curious about the vehemence of the anonymous posters here. Is SIDS more prevalent in AP homes? Are there more SIDS babies found in the 'family bed', or more in cribs? I'm not well informed on the issue since my youngest 'infant' is almost 14, but I was under the impression that most SIDS victims were in cribs. Is this not true? Is there any credible evidence that AP leads to higher infant mortality from SIDS or other causes?
If not, then why all the anger?
your Blog Site and it is related to the keyword SLOT CAR just like my
I am angry because despite the flap from attachment parenters recently a baby died locally in its parents bed. it was a very very sad story that made the papers because the husband had also been diagnosed with cancer. after I read this story I thought that the punishment for the people who told them their child would be safer in their bed (and from comments in the paper I do believe that was what happened) could not be harsh enough. like I said, a good class action law suit against Le Leche League is LONG overdue.
just like with the vaccination thing, it seems like "attachment parenters" have self appointed themselves as "experts" and pooh pooh anything that contradicts the way they decide it should be. why this death rate? to blame it on "cribs" and "formula" is just plain stupid. there are all kinds of factors, including quite possibly the fact taht single motherhood is very high in the US and a good chunk of htis high mortality occurs among single moms whose minds are apparently on many other things besides prenatal care. just saying the rate is high in the US and the US uses cribs is such an abuse of statistics. are the same kids who are dying the ones who are sleeping in cribs? or are there two different things going on. none of this matters though, to LLL and their ilk who will simply use anything they can to push their agenda. whether it reflects reality or not. "dont confuse me with the facts ma'am: I just had a bad childhood and it makes me feel warm and snuggly to sleep with my baby so dont spoil it for me. or I have to work all day and I only see my baby at bedtime so dont say anything that might cause me to rearrange my self seeking yuppie life OR I dont want to be intimate with my husband and the baby is a nice hedge against that so dont say anything that will make me have to deal with it" however, "APers" will use any statistics at all, in whatever distorted form to push their cause. any conflicting results must be caused by corporate greed. OH PLEASE. crib sales are down...oh brother..there are so many doo dads out there for babies I am sure that if that were the case they would just find something else. if corporate greed were behind it I would imagine they would find a way to pander to the whole co sleeping trend. I mean co sleeping or not...babies have a ton of stuff that needs to be stored in furniture. not to mention the rocking chairs they could sell to cosleeping families if you believe you will scar your child if you were to let them cry it you will probably spend hours in a rocking chair. if they wanted corporate greed..they could just latch onto that and play into APers fears about caused little Johnny to need years of therapy if they didnt have a comfy rocking chair to help pass the night in attempting to get the kid to sleep. I dont buy it. these companies are always doing market research and they have much more effective ways of generating money than fabricating a study on sleep safety. or they would come up with some catchy hook pushing stuff for kids past the family bed age...you know..you saved money by not buying a crib so now doesnt she deserve a custom bedroom suite? GIVE ME A FREAKIN BREAK!!!! I have a friend who custom paints infant nursuries among other things and I half jokingly was going to call her up and ask if the society of decorative painters or whatever they are called is behind this to boost their profits. I mean, if you dont want to be confused with facts, there has GOT to be a conspiracy theory SOMEWHERE to explain the emergence of facts that dont say what you want them to. yeah, its ALL about corporate greed. all the baby equipment out there is only to line someones pockets. most people dont get half the stuff thats available but yeah, people came up with swings and strollers and exersaucers because they knew that it was bad for babies but they just wanted to make a buck.no, I got my swing and excercaucer because they were SANITY savers. oh yeah, that makes me a bad mother. not to mention a slave of corparate wal martized america. you need your head examined you freakish example of interbreeding gone wild. or better yet, lets just drop you off on an island in the middle of nowhere and you can play primitive society all by your little selves.
I should add to the previous poster there are alot of things I have "gotten away" with safety wise. but just because most people "get away" with something most of the time doesnt make it safe. I should also add that the most gullible people, those most likely to be poor and uneducated, those that are likely to look at a self proclaimed parenting "expert" as some kind of guru rather than think for themselves. these are also the kind of people most likely to just hear the part about the bonding and all and miss the list of safety tips. or to have grandmothers who slept with their kids minus all the safety tips and figure that they "got away" with it and so will they. I have read these safety tips and I think APers violate them ALL THE TIME. I mean how many of them sleep with no warm bedding or pillows? if you are close enough to the baby to "bond" with it at night you are close enough for it to get its head stuck in your pillow. and Dr Sears contradicts himself totally. he says to never push a child out of the family bed and encourages it to around age four. BUT his eight kids are around two years apart..and he tells people for safeties sake to only sleep with one kid at at time. SO WHICH IS IT??? is he forcing a child out of bed prematurely (which seems potentially more hurtful than having never let them in in the first place esp since the kid probably IS old enough to remember now) or is he sleeping with multiple kids and just hoping that everything turns out all right?
Wow. Take time to breathe.
Picking a point or two out of the avalanche:
A baby cries not for the fun of it but because something is wrong. Common sense says you take care of the problem. On occasion, the solution may be to let the baby cry itself into exhaustion, but with 4 babies under my belt, I can count the number of times that happened on one hand. A diaper change, a feeding, or some attention usually does the trick quite nicely.
If statistics show that SIDS is far more prevalent in cribs (hence the early name 'crib death') than in the parents' bed, then at worst, shared sleeping is a non factor in SIDS. That's not twisting the statistics; that's straightforward analysis.
Here's a quick lesson on hazard analysis. When rating a safety hazard, there are three main items that must be accounted for.
1. The probability of the safety hazard.
2. The severity of the consequences.
3. The benefit of the activity involving the hazard.
Using the numbers that katie provided, and assuming approximately 10% of babies bed share routinely, then it looks like the death rate for bedsharing runs at about .02% of all births and the death rate for cribs runs at .05% of all births.
What this tells me, even with the roughness of the data, that bedsharing cuts the risk of SIDS in half. Now this is a very quick and dirty analysis, but I'm willing to bet that my answer is at least in the ball park. So, the answer for item 1 of our hazard analysis is "No discernable increase in risk."
Item 2, severity of hazard, is obvious; death of a baby is as severe as it gets. However, given that item 1 shows no link between the activity and the consequence, it becomes difficult to assign a value here.
Item 3, advantages to the activity. From personal experience, I can tell you that the advantages are huge, and I can only imagine even bigger when you can breast feed. And there is medical evidence to back up my experience. Babies sleep safer with their mother, and are healthier.
So, now we can perform our hazard analysis for bedsharing. First, we know that it does not increase the risk, and in fact my reduce the risk of infant mortality. Second we know there are appreciable benefits that acrue to the infant while sharing a bed. And finally, while the consequence, death, is certainly severe, there is no way to link the activity to the consequence.
In short, bed sharing is not a risky activity when you look at all the facts.
Spot-on, Rich.
-Katie
uh, I dont think I follow this. because I took statistics and simply proving that "more" deaths occur in cribs than in beds means nothing. SIDS by its very nature is a catchall term for "unexplained infant death". if the infant is proved to have died from something that is identifiable (such as suffucation) then its no longer SIDS. BUT when it comes to the sleep sharing...I have heard from emergency room nurses that this is the nasty little secret no one talks about. no one wants to tell a parent that they basically killed thier kid. not to mention that making the judgement call that the child suffocated in its parents bed will bring CPS in on the rest of the kids most likely.so the whole thing gets rephrased as SIDS when in fact, unofficially, everyone in the ER knows that the baby suffocated and that it was directly related to it being in bed with the parent. I suspect accurate reporting would show even more of a death rate in the "family bed" than is already found. TRUE SIDS can happen anywhere. I have heard of babies in a stroller on a walk and the mother looks down and there they are dead.
I find it absurd that one can refute this data because of imaginary baby furniture selling conspiracies.
especially when I have heard from the medical community that everyone knows these kids are dying because of "sleep sharing" but no one will talk about it.
if the kid is in the bed and at risk because "it is more convenient' then shame on that mother for putting the baby at risk just so she can get more sleep. my son went through a phase where there were times he woke up at four AM. he would cry back to sleep before a certain time but once you passed that time the ONLY and I Mean ONLY way he would sleep was a car ride. it would have been more comfy for me to leave him in the car and go in but ya know what...my kids safety meant more to me than comfy so I slept in the car for a few weeks till he moved past it. and I still wonder if his odd sleep habits that his sister never had were because I sleep trained her and did not sleep train him. if its more inconvenient to march over to the crib to nurse the baby then so be it. your childs well being is more important. a lot of this too is because these parents are so afraid of scarring little Johnny or Susie by letting them cry a bit that anythign they can do to avoid that, even if it means tweaking cold hard facts to do it, is fair game. and FYI..babies DO cry for no reason. sometimes it means something. sometimes they are cying just because they can. and SOMETIMES..and I have never once heard an AP type acknowledge this because it would shoot their whole theory into the ground...SOMETIMES>.they cry because THEY ARE TIRED. and what do tired babies/children need..sleep. and sometimes I found wiht mine the only way you got sleep was to put them in that ole crib and let them cry. despite what APers would tell you there are many times when all the rocking in the world will not lull an overtired baby to sleep. there are times to rock and lull a baby adn there are times to leave them be. I think this sleep sharing business is because parents have been made very afraid they are doing grave psychic harm if they allow the child to cry it out. allowing five minutes of whimpering is tantamount to people who let a kid scream till he/she barfs six hours later. do not people have any judgement any more or is it all about extremes?
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