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When a toddler falls unwell, caregivers typically change how and the place the toddler sleeps—wanting to maintain them shut by the evening. However new analysis from Johns Hopkins Kids’s Middle means that a few of these modifications—though well-intentioned—contradict confirmed secure sleep practices for infants, and will do extra hurt than good.
In interviews with greater than 100 caregivers of infants ages start to 12 months presenting to the emergency division for toddler sickness, researchers discovered that unsafe sleep practices grew to become extra widespread in periods of sickness—and sometimes continued even after the sickness resolved.
These modifications to sleep practices enhance an toddler’s danger of sudden surprising toddler demise (SUID), a broad time period that features sudden toddler demise syndrome (SIDS). SUID, outlined because the surprising sudden demise of a seemingly wholesome toddler from recognized and unknown causes, resulted within the deaths of three,700 infants in 2022, in accordance with federal well being statistics.
Quite a few research over previous many years have tied unsafe sleep practices to each SIDS and SUID. Findings from the research had been printed Sept. 18 in Pediatrics, and add to proof that toddler sickness is a danger issue for SUID.
Caregivers had been requested concerning the infants’ ordinary sleep practices, and in the event that they modified when the infants had been sick. The caregivers reported that adherence to secure habits, akin to placing their infants in a crib or playpen, declined total from 61.8% earlier than sickness to 48.1% throughout sickness.
As well as, the proportion of caregivers reporting their infants sleeping in a mattress or on a sofa rose from 56.5% earlier than sickness to 62.6% throughout sickness, and additional elevated to 75% on the one-month follow-up. Equally, bed-sharing charges elevated total from 57.3% earlier than sickness to 68.7% throughout sickness, and additional elevated to 83.6% on the one-month follow-up.
Many caregivers within the research reported shifts away from advisable secure sleep practices, akin to inserting infants on their backs to sleep, throughout toddler sickness. The most typical modifications included elevated bed-sharing, sleeping on non-recommended sleep surfaces, and susceptible or facet positioning, which aren’t in step with the American Academy of Pediatrics secure sleep suggestions.
The truth that the alterations continued past the sickness interval highlights the necessity for focused interventions to strengthen secure sleep practices throughout sickness, says Mary Beth Howard, M.D., M.Sc., pediatric emergency drugs doctor at Johns Hopkins Kids’s Middle and lead researcher on the research.
“Parents often make these changes because they want to comfort or closely watch their sick baby, but these well-intentioned adjustments actually raise the risks of sudden, unexpected death. Illness is a particularly vulnerable time, making it even more important to stick to safe sleep guidelines,” says Howard.
The Johns Hopkins investigators word that October is Sudden Toddler Loss of life Syndrome (SIDS) Consciousness Month, a time to encourage secure toddler sleep practices. In response to the American Academy of Pediatrics, secure sleep practices embody inserting infants on their backs to sleep, having infants sleep alone with out blankets, pillows or stuffed animals, and having infants sleep in a crib or bassinet.
Further consultants who contributed to this analysis embody Leticia Ryan, Kevin Psoter, Barry Solomon, Milind Mutala and Sarah Ehrenberg from Johns Hopkins and Rachel Moon from College of Virginia.
Extra info:
Mary Beth Howard et al, Modifications in Sleep Practices Throughout and After Sickness, Pediatrics (2025). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2025-071605
Offered by
Johns Hopkins College College of Medication
Quotation:
Sleep practices throughout toddler diseases could enhance danger of sudden toddler demise (2025, October 18)
retrieved 18 October 2025
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