Supporting Articles — Adult Beds Pose Danger to Babies

Co-sleeping may have been a factor in the deaths of at least eight homeless children since 2000, report says; city pushing for reforms

Newsday.com - August 9, 2004

A study by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, released in 1999, concluded that at least 64 infants and toddlers die nationwide each year in adult beds. The study, covering 1990 through 1997, found 108 children smothered to death when a parent rolled over on them; another 128 were trapped between the mattress and a bed frame, headboard or footboard; and another 125 suffocated between the bed and the wall.

The dangers are magnified when parents are obese or abuse drugs or alcohol.

Despite the statistics and public awareness campaigns, some parents ignore the dangers of co-sleeping. In some cases, the decision not to have a crib is economic. In others, it is philosophical. Some parents prefer the closeness of sleeping with their babies, which they believe promotes bonding and breast-feeding.

Co-sleeping is not confined to shelter families, nor are such deaths. But conditions of homelessness could foster co-sleeping - frequent moves, cramped living spaces and little money to buy cribs.

Call For Training

Noting a recent spate of shelter deaths related to improper sleeping arrangements, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum has called for training for city and contract agency staff who have contact with infants.

"These types of death could be prevented through education," Gotbaum testified at a recent City Council hearing, where she proposed signs throughout homeless shelters urging parents to place their babies in cribs. The city's Administration for Children's Services said recently that it plans to distribute a video to shelters that, among other safety tips, warns against the dangers of co-sleeping.

Indeed, the parents of several shelter children who died after co-sleeping told investigators they were not aware of those dangers. Others acknowledged that they were aware but continued the practice anyway.

Partly because of cramped shelter rooms, some shelter families have actually been known to remove cribs from their units. The mother of Sade Faith Hathaway, a 2-month-old girl who died in a Red Cross-operated shelter in Manhattan in 2002, told workers she removed the crib from her room partly because she was afraid mice in the room would invade the crib.

No cause was determined in Sade's death, but co-sleeping was listed as a possible factor in the medical examiner's report, along with dehydration and malnutrition.

Hard to Enforce

The non-profit organization HELP USA, which operates seven city shelters, has for the past decade required families with babies to use cribs, according to HELP USA official Fred Shack.

But Shack said enforcing that rule can sometimes be difficult when families are in the privacy of their own shelter units.

"We've had a number of situations in our facilities where children have rolled off the bed," said Shack, the organization's senior vice president of client services.