Updated Safe Sleep Guidelines for Babies from the American Academy of Pediatrics

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released updates to its guidelines for safe sleep for infants. As in the 2016 guidelines, infants should always sleep in a crib or bassinet, on their back, without soft toys, pillows, blankets or other bedding. New additions to these guidelines include:

• Infants should sleep on a level surface, not on an incline (including the baby rockers that the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning about earlier this month).
• Baby health devices such as SIDS Monitors are not protective and should not be used to avoid sleep related death.
• And while the AAP acknowledged their long-standing recommendation against bed-sharing with infants has met with resistance from families who do so due to cultural preferences, facilitation of breastfeeding, etc., they noted that, based on evidence, they are unable to recommend bed-sharing under any circumstances. Instead, they recommend that infants sleep in the same room as parents during the first six months of life.

See further details in the attached article from the Washington Post.

The Westwood Children’s School follows strict safe infant sleep guidelines per MA EEC and our NAEYC accrediting agency. These include:

• Children under one year of age must only sleep in a crib.
• Cribs should only include a tightly-fitted crib sheets and no blankets, bumpers, pillows, stuffed animals, or pacifiers with stuffed animals.
• No blankets or swaddles are allowed but parents can supply a ‘sleep sack’ for their child.
• Infants are not allowed to sleep in car seats, strollers, swings, infant carriers or slings. If a child falls asleep in such equipment, they must be removed immediately.
• Our  educators closely supervise infant rest times. We also closely monitor any periods of ‘tummy time.’

If you have any questions about our WCS policies and procedures, feel free to ask.