Specialists give parent-education campaigns credit for big decline in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Kentucky

Fewer babies in Kentucky are dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and wellness specialists are crediting a multi-pronged educational campaign by hospitals and other health-care providers, reports Ann Bowdan of Louisville's WLKY-TV.

In 2016, 103 Kentucky children died of SIDS. By 2018 the number had dropped by more than half, to 49.

"We have done everything from teaching in our prenatal classes, there is literature that goes home, it’s on our website," Norton's Children's Hospital wellness specialist Erkia Janes told Bowdan. "It’s seeped through every class we have."

For many years, parents were given the wrong advice, "For decades, it was thought a baby sleeping on its back could choke on reflux, or vomiting," Bowdan reports. "But in 1994 the American Academy of Pediatrics reversed that way of thinking," based on research. Janes said, "The research clearly shows that a baby on their belly is desperately as risk for SIDS."

The educational materials use "ABC" to describe how a baby should sleep: "alone, on your back, in a safe crib," Janes said. "Meaning no blankets, bumpers, and no sleeping in a bed with parents."