According to ABC News, in Saginaw County, Michigan, health officials are trying to warn parents about the potential hazards of ‘co-sleeping,’ or sleeping together with small children.
This warning comes following the death of yet another local child. A 13-month-old girl died with sleeping together with her father.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for parents to sleep together with young children. Health officials have always urged against it due to the potential hazards, including injury and unintentional death.
Local medical examiner Kanu Virani noted that the girl had passed away on January 18th, 2011 due to compression asphyxia. The girl’s death certificate states that she died while co-sleeping with her father on a sofa.
Child birth educator Nancy Butterfield of Covenant Healthcare (and also works together with the Infant Mortality Coalition) notes that approximately 3 or 4 children are killed every year in Saginaw County due to co-sleeping with a parent.
Butterfield mentions, “it can happen to anybody.” Parents, new or experienced, may sit down with a young child, not at all thinking that they are tired. Relaxing with the child, “they just kind of drift off.” In these situations, a baby or young toddler can be suffocated.
This latest case has caused health officials to speak up yet again about the dangers of co-sleeping. They urge that people should not put themselves into any position where this situation could occur.
Parents who leave Covenant Healthcare are always warned against the dangers of co-sleeping with babies and toddlers. Nancy Butterfield says that Covenant Healthcare also uses doll demonstrations to further instill the dangers of co-sleeping into parents’ heads.
