Preventing sudden unexpected infant death (SUDI)

I realise this isn't part of the upcoming post list but this is such an important issue I had to make it a priority.

On Thursday morning I attended the National Investment For The Early Years (NIFTeY) NSW branch meeting. This meeting is attended by key stakeholders in early childhood including government, Gowrie NSW, SDN, and others. I attend as a independent member as I asked pretty please if I could join as I am very interested/passionate about the work they do.

Anyway, on Thursday, we were honored to have a presentation made to us by Professor Heather Jeffery. Heather led and co-author the recent NSW Child Death Review - 'a preliminary investigation of neonatal SUDI In NSW 1996-2008: opportunities for prevention '.

For access to the full report click here: http://kids.nsw.gov.au/uploads/documents/FinalSUDIneonates.pdf

The key findings were:
The three key risk factors for sudden unexpected death of an infant are:
- co-sleeping. Therefore never sleep in the same bed as your child, they can be in the same room but not the bed. Cultures that do co-sleep, eg China and Japan, have a separate safe place for the child to be moved to when asleep.
- safe sleeping i.e. The child should always be put to sleep on their back, NEVER on their tummy
- smoking

If these three risk factors are removed, most deaths will be preventable.

This is a link to the SIDS and KIDS brochure about safe sleeping: http://www.sidsandkids.org/wp-content/uploads/SidsSafeSleeping14ppa1.pdf

The SIDS and kids website is : www.sidsandkids.org

I know this is a sensitive issue and there is a lot of misinformation about what is best for your child. However, this is the very latest research and it may prevent your healthy child from dying.

As a result of this presentation, there will be a substantial government campaign implemented to raise awareness to the findings.

If you have any questions just let me know and and I will endeavor to point to in the right direction


Posted by Wendy

"we are the change we have been waiting for" - Barack Obama