Although parents might want to sleep with newborns between them to keep their babies warm in cold weather, or perhaps add pillows and heavy blankets to a crib, a pediatrician warned that this is are unsafe.
A Ministry of Health and Welfare review of the deaths of 90 children aged six and under found that 15 percent died of suffocation, such as from sleeping on their stomach, sleeping between adults or being covered by a blanket.
Many Taiwanese use pillows for infants, but newborns do not need them and can sleep comfortably lying face up and flat on their backs, Taiwan Pediatric Association secretary-general Peng Chun-chih (彭純芝) said on Sunday last week.
Photo courtesy of Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital
No matter what special features pillow brands claim to have, children under the age of one should not have a pillow, she added.
Some parents worry that their children could develop a flat head if they do not sleep on a pillow, she said.
However, babies only lie flat on their backs when sleeping, not for the whole day, so such a problem would not occur from sleep alone, Peng said.
Blankets can be placed on infants if they are light and cannot reach the child’s nose and mouth, she said.
There are safe blanket-wrapping methods that parents can learn to prevent babies from flipping or kicking off the blanket while keeping them warm.
To avoid having to wake up several times during a night to check on a baby in another room, parents can sleep in the same room as their child, but the infants should sleep in a crib that does not contain any stuffed animals or other objects, Peng said.
Parents should avoid sleeping in the same bed as their infants, as babies could be squashed or suffocate under the adults’ blanket, she said.
Parents should also avoid letting a baby sleep on its stomach against a parent’s body, Peng added.
The ministry’s child death review focused on preventable child deaths, such as parents sleeping in the same bed as their babies, which can lead to a tragedy, Peng said.
The National Health Promotion Administration said that parents need to implement safe sleeping practices for newborns, such as not allowing them to sleep on their stomach or with a pillow, while their beds should not be hot or too soft.
Parents can use sleeping bags and sleep suits for newborns, or swaddle their child in a special baby wrap, keeping their arms outside and not covering their face, the adminstration said.
Soft objects — such as pillows, blankets or stuffed animals — should not be placed in a baby’s crib, and the use of crib bumpers is also not recommended, it said.
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