New US cot death policy recommends pacifiers

Babies should be offered pacifiers at bedtime, and they should sleep in their parents’ room – but not in their beds – in order to lessen the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, the Untied States’ largest group of paediatricians says.

Both measures may help keep babies from slumbering too deeply – a problem for infants prone to SIDS, said Dr. Rachel Moon, who helped draft the new recommendations on SIDS prevention.

They were prepared for rlease today at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Paediatrics.

The death rate from SIDS has fallen sharply in recent years, now that parents are warned not to let their babies sleep on their stomachs or amid fluffy bedding or stuffed toys.

But it remains the leading case of death in US infants between ages 1 month and 1 year, killing more than 2,000 US babies each year, and new tactics are needed to fight it, the academy said.

SIDS is defined as a sudden death of an infant, often while sleeping, that remains unexplained even after an autopsy and death scene examination.