Safe Sleep in Child-Care Settings

What is SIDS?

SIDS is the sudden, unexpected death—that doesn’t have a known cause even after a full investigation—of a baby between 1 month and 1 year of age.

About half of the sudden, unexpected infant deaths that occur in the United States each year are from SIDS.

What are other sleep-related causes of infant death?

Other sleep-related causes of infant death are those related to how or where a baby slept. These can include accidental:

l Suffocation: when something, such as a pillow, or someone covers the baby’s face and nose, blocking the ability to breathe

l Entrapment: when the baby gets trapped between two objects, such as a mattress and a wall, and can’t breathe

l Strangulation: when something presses on or wraps around the baby’s neck, blocking baby’s airway