There’s a recent thread about yarn for baby blankets, and the issue of safety came up. Baby blankets are wonderful to knit, especially because they can be fairly easy and “mindless” and are so appreciated by new parents. But it’s probably a good idea to inform the recipient that they should only be used for carrying the baby, car seats, etc. Because the National Institute of Health is now saying that babies should never be covered with a blanket when sleeping in their cribs (AND THEY SHOULD ALSO ALWAYS BE PLACED ON THEIR BACKS!).
Sudden Infant Death Syndrom is the leading cause of death in babies between 1 and 18 months. The rates of SIDS in babies is much higher when sleep on soft bedding or covered by blankets, and they should be placed in sleep sacks if the room is cold. If you are a more advanced knitter, sleep sacks or buntings are a great idea. If not, or if you really enjoy knitting baby blankets, then by all means do! I would just tell the parents what it’s for.
I understand your point, and SIDS is a horrible thing
but I always put a blanket over my son (he was born in december, in a blizzard). My house is drafty and the chance of SIDS was not a big of risk as him dying of the cold.
People have to remember: back to sleep, tummy to play.
I only put light knit blankets over him (and a loosely knit blanket at that) because if he did get it over his face he would still be able to breathe. He was also swaddled until he was 3 months so he wasnt able to use his arms to pullup the blanket anyways!
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Thanks for the link. [color=“white”][SIZE=“1”]I guess my 4 school age children are lucky. We used blankets, bumper pads, and baby monitor. They sleep in our bed or on the couch & pillows kept them from rolling off.[/SIZE][/color]
SIDS is a statistical negative in that the cause is unknown; it is the assumed cause when all other known causes have been eliminated.
The listed risk factor are the most common sleep environment differences between sleep conditions of a SIDS death and comparable surviving infants.
I think a more sound method (IMHO) of study was published in Oxford Journals.
So if the there was a long labor (16 hours or more) or breech delivery then there was and increase risk of SIDS. An inverse relationship (of special note) was found between Apgar score and SIDS. As the Apgar scores decreased, the rate of SIDS increased.
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Now this is very interesting! When I had my first son 24 years ago, I was told to put him on his stomach by the hospital. Now my mother said place him on his side. I sided each of my sons and covered each with a blanket. They are alive and happy today. I would add they can be annoying and are all taller than me so I get teased alot by my sons, lol. I love each of them dearly and they each slept in a crib in my room until they were big enough to be put in a regular bed and no longer needed the crib. I checked on them many times so… Alive and healthy!!!
