Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

[RNDreamer]

First, I apologize for the question. I have no children and my exposure to babies is limited to just being around them when they are awake. However, my dream is to end up in the NICU...

Anyway, I was wondering, over the years I've heard of different ways that newborns should be put to sleep (on their backs, on their sides, etc) with reasons ( woke choke on saliva, etc) for preventing SIDS. What is the protocol in the hospital? Are babies put on the backs, stomaches or sides and do any of you know of babies (in the NICU or nursery) that have died in the hospital of SIDS?

Thank you in advance for answering.

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

We put them on their backs, stomachs and sides because they are constantly monitored. If their HR, RR, or O2 sat does anything funky, an alarm goes off and we're right there. Many preemies actually do much better prone. We are very careful to tell the parents never to leave a baby to sleep on anything other than their backs once they go home, though.

I don't know of any babies in my unit dying and having it labelled SIDS. I sort of think (and I may be wrong) that SIDS is a catch-all for an unexplained death. In the hospital, when babies die, we tend to know why. I could very well be wrong, though, so if anyone knows different, feel free to contradict me!

[Sweeper933]

We put them on their backs, stomachs and sides because they are constantly monitored. If their HR, RR, or O2 sat does anything funky, an alarm goes off and we're right there. Many preemies actually do much better prone. We are very careful to tell the parents never to leave a baby to sleep on anything other than their backs once they go home, though.

Same here...

Once kids get close to going home - we stop putting them prone. This way the babies can adjust to only being supine, and it helps the parents get used to it as well.

[justme1972]

I don't know of any babies in my unit dying and having it labelled SIDS. I sort of think (and I may be wrong) that SIDS is a catch-all for an unexplained death. In the hospital, when babies die, we tend to know why. I could very well be wrong, though, so if anyone knows different, feel free to contradict me!

I totally agree with this statement. I have read I don't know how many news articles where it will describe how a woman put a newborn in bed with her (and sometimes her husband/boyfriend is sleeping in the bed too), and the article will say that the "baby died from SIDS".

I'm always sitting there thinking, "Uh, no..that isn't SIDS, that's a rollover death."

We had a case here where a woman had a baby to die two years ago of "SIDS" and she had another baby, and put that baby in bed with her two, and it died at 7 days old...from my understanding, SIDS in the first 4 weeks of life is extremely rare...this time they charged her with second degree murder.

I don't know why someone would put the baby back in bed with them when they already had one baby to die that way.

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

We put them on their backs, stomachs and sides because they are constantly monitored. If their HR, RR, or O2 sat does anything funky, an alarm goes off and we're right there. Many preemies actually do much better prone. We are very careful to tell the parents never to leave a baby to sleep on anything other than their backs once they go home, though.

I don't know of any babies in my unit dying and having it labelled SIDS. I sort of think (and I may be wrong) that SIDS is a catch-all for an unexplained death. In the hospital, when babies die, we tend to know why. I could very well be wrong, though, so if anyone knows different, feel free to contradict me!

We do the same thing. We send the babies home with a sleeper, on the back of the sleeper it says "if you can read this, turn me over."

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

We've recently been cautioned that we should model good behavior by placing infants on their backs only. In practice, it doesn't always happen, since they are always monitored and since the prone position is sometimes the only way to get a kid's sats up or to get a kid to chill out from a tantrum.

[prmenrs, RN]

We do the same thing. We send the babies home with a sleeper, on the back of the sleeper it says "if you can read this, turn me over."

That's very clever!!