{"id":28080,"date":"2016-08-27T02:28:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T02:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/tired-parents-don-t-always-follow-sleep\/"},"modified":"2016-08-27T02:28:56","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T02:28:56","slug":"tired-parents-don-t-always-follow-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/tired-parents-don-t-always-follow-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Tired parents don\u2019t always follow sleep guidelines for babies"},"content":{"rendered":"

{When someone uses the phrase \u201csleeping like a baby,\u201d it\u2019s obvious that they don\u2019t really know how babies sleep. Many babies, especially newborns, are lousy sleepers, waking up every few hours to rustle around, cry and eat. For creatures who sleep up to 18 hours per 24-hour period, newborns are exhausting. } <\/p>\n

That means that bone-tired parents are often desperate to get their babies to sleep so they can rest too. A study published in the September Pediatrics captured this nightly struggle in the homes of 162 Pennsylvanian families. And the results revealed something disturbing: Despite knowing that they were being videotaped, many parents didn\u2019t put their babies into a safe sleeping spot.<\/p>\n

The risk of sleep-related infant deaths, including those caused by strangulation or sudden infant death syndrome, goes up when babies are put in unsafe sleeping positions or near suffocation hazards. Babies should be on their back on a firm mattress free of any objects. But that wasn\u2019t the case for the majority of babies in the study, says Ian Paul, a pediatrician at Penn State.<\/p>\n

As a parent to three, Paul is sympathetic to the difficulties of soothing babies to sleep. \u201cThe first few months are really exhausting,\u201d he says. But as a pediatrician, he also sees the risks of ignoring safe sleep guidelines. \u201cParents need to realize that these risks are real and might happen to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The videos taken for the study revealed that at 1 month of age, nearly all of the babies were put onto a sleep surface that had a loose or ill-advised item. Some of those objects aren\u2019t surprising: Loose blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, crib bumpers and a SIDS monitor turned up in babies\u2019 sleep areas. \u201cThe fact that almost every baby had loose bedding in the crib was disturbing,\u201d Paul says. Stranger objects, such as cords, electrical wires and even a pet, were also observed.<\/p>\n

Some of these items, such as sleep positioners and the soft bumpers that run around crib rails, are sold at baby stores. \u201cIf they\u2019re selling it, parents think it is safe,\u201d Paul says. \u201cThat\u2019s just not the case.\u201d Despite public health messages, babies are still suffocating on bumpers or getting trapped between bumpers and their mattress. There are no federal rules against crib bumpers, but several areas have banned them.<\/p>\n

The study also spotted lots of bed hopping. Often, babies would start the night in a safe crib, but by the morning, they\u2019d be in a more dangerous place, such as a bed full of pillows with a parent. The nightly shifts usually went from safe to unsafe as tired parents moved their babies around, Paul and colleagues found.<\/p>\n

Paul recommends that parents create a safe place right next to their own beds for their babies to sleep, such as a bassinet or playpen. By designing their environment to encourage good habits at night, tired parents may be more likely to put the baby into a safe spot. <\/p>\n

\"For<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{When someone uses the phrase \u201csleeping like a baby,\u201d it\u2019s obvious that they don\u2019t really know how babies sleep. Many babies, especially newborns, are lousy sleepers, waking up every few hours to rustle around, cry and eat. For creatures who sleep up to 18 hours per 24-hour period, newborns are exhausting. } That means that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[75],"byline":[2486],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-news","tag-homenews","byline-science-news"],"bylines":[{"id":2486,"name":"SCIENCE NEWS","slug":"science-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2486,"name":"SCIENCE NEWS","slug":"science-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28080"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28080"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}