SUID/SIDS Gateway

Safe Sleep

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Featured Resources

This page contains information for parents, caregivers, and health professionals on safe sleep for infants, including placing infants to sleep on their backs, safe crib environments, and related topics. Materials are listed with the most recent items first.

Overview

• What Does a Safe Sleep Environment Look Like? (2013). Two-page illustrated fact sheet from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. | En Español.
• Safe Sleep for Your Baby. (2012). Missouri Dept. of Health and Senior Services. Discusses the importance of a safe place for baby to sleep, the risks of bed-sharing, and do's and don'ts for safe sleeping.
• Helping Baby Back To Sleep | En Español. (2009). Resource Center. Advice for parents on helping infants sleep comfortably on their backs.

Featured Resources

• Safe Sleep (2014). Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Resources, promising state practices and programs.
• Infant Safe Sleep Campaigns and Materials (2013). National SUID/SIDS Resource Center. Federal, national, state, and local campaign to promote safe sleep.
• Toolkit for Community Health Providers: Engaging Ethnic Media to Inform Communities about Safe Sleep. (2012). National Center for Cultural Competence.
• Hospital Initiative Toolkit. (2012). Cribs for Kids. Instructions and materials for starting a hospital-based infant safe sleep program.
• Infant Mortality and Pregnancy Loss Knowledge Path: Section on Sleep Environment. (2012). Maternal and Child Health Library. Resources on reducing infant mortality through safe sleep environment and practices.
• Sleep in Infants, Children, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women Knowledge Path. (2012). Maternal and Child Health Library. Resources on sleep problems (such as insomnia and sleep apnea), their causes (such as anxiety and caffeine), and seeking treatment.
• SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Expansion of Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment. (2011). American Academy of Pediatrics. Policy Statement | Technical Report
• A Child Care Provider's Guide to Safe Sleep: Helping You to Reduce the Risk of SIDS (rev. ed.). (2012). Healthy Child Care America. Also available in Spanish. Safe sleep policies and practices for child care facilities and for anyone who cares for an infant.
• Parent's Guide to Safe Sleep: Helping You to Reduce the Risk of SIDS (rev. ed.). (2012). Healthy Child Care America. Also available in Spanish. Includes information about spreading the word on safe sleep practices.
• 14 Ways to Protect Your Baby From SIDS: Safe Sleep Advice From the Experts. (2011). By Rachel Moon, M.D. and Fern Hauck, M.D. Published by Parenting Press.
• Hot Topics in Infant Safe Sleep: An Interactive Workshop with Rachel Moon, M.D. (2011). Video from the ASIP-Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death Alliance 2010 International Conference on Perinatal and Infant Death, along with Q & A from follow-up webinar series.
• Infant Sleep Position and SIDS: Questions and Answers for Health Care Providers (rev. ed.). (2007). National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. SIDS facts and advice health professionals should give to parents on such topics as choking risks, back sleeping, child care, sleep surfaces, pacifiers, positional plagiocephaly, and others.
• Model Hospital Policy Manual and Tool Kit: Incorporating Infant Safe Sleep Practices in a Health Care Setting/Tool Kit for Educating Parents and Caregivers About Infant Safe Sleep. (2007). Allegheny County Health Department. Discussion of reasons given for not following infant safe sleep practices and topics related to SIDS and safe sleep.
• CJ Foundation for SIDS: Education Materials. Posters, public awareness campaigns, and other materials.
• Consumer Product Safety Commission: Crib Information Center.
• First Candle: Bedtime Basics Sleep Education Campaign.
• Healthy Child Care America Safe Sleep Campaign. Brochures, training materials, policy and research articles.
• Keeping Babies Safe. American Academy of Pediatrics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
• National Institute for Child Health and Human Development: Safe to Sleep® Public Education Campaign. Brochures for consumers, materials for health care providers, continuing education modules for nurses and pharmacists. Includes materials to help get the safe sleep message to Native communities.
• National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education. safe sleep practices and SIDS/suffocation risk reduction and links to resources from other organizations.

August 2009; updated March 2014