In 1994, the Back to Sleep campaign — which urged parents to lay their infants on their backs rather than their stomachs — kicked off, changing the way American parents thought about sleep. The campaign was successful, helping to reduce deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) by more than 50 percent.
However, 3,500 babies still die each year from SIDS and other sleep-related deaths, prompting the American Academy of Pediatrics to get more strict than ever when it comes to issuing guidelines about how to ensure safe sleep.
The AAP now recommends that babies share a room (but not a bed) with their parents for the first year. Babies should be placed in a crib or similar space with a hard mattress and tight-fitting sheet, with nothing else around: no blankets, stuffed animals or even crib bumpers.
Although the current recommendations are tough to follow (who doesn’t want to see their sleeping baby all cozy), professionals hope it will lead to a further reduction in sleep-related deaths within the first year.