Safe Sleep for Your Baby
On average about 3,500 infants die suddenly and unexpectedly each year in the United States. Most of these deaths result from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related causes of infant death, such as suffocation.1
Safe to Sleep® campaign launched in 1994 formerly the Back to Sleep campaign.
Mission: to educate parents, caregivers, and health care providers about ways to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death
SIDS
The proportion of infants placed on their backs to sleep increased from 17% to 73%.
Graphic: A pair of pie charts showing the proportion of infants placed on their backs to sleep increased from 17% in 1993 to 73% in 2010.
Graphic: Bar graph titled Number of SIDS Deaths. The graph shows the number of SIDS deaths decreased from 4,073 in 1994 to 1,500 in 2016.
Graphic: Bar graph titled Number of Other Sleep-related Infant Deaths. The graph shows that the number of other sleep-related infant deaths increased from 903 in 1994 to 2,107 in 2016.
The U.S. SIDS rate dropped more than 50% between 1994 and 2016. However, at the same time, the rate of infant deaths from other sleep-related causes increased.
Safe Sleep Environment
To reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death:
Graphic: Back sleeping baby icon.
Always place baby on his or her back to sleep, for naps and at night.
Graphic: Room sharing icon.
Share your room with baby. Keep baby close to your bed, on a separate surface designed for infants.
Graphic: Crib icon.
Use a firm and flat sleep surface, such as a mattress in a safety-approved crib*, covered by a fitted sheet with no other bedding or soft items in the sleep area.
*For information on crib safety, contact the CPSC at 1-800-638-2772 or http://www.cpsc.gov.
1CDC. (2018). Sudden Unexpected Infant Death and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. https://www.cdc.gov/sudden-infant-death/about/.
Learn more about ways to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death at http://safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov.
Graphic: Safe to Sleep logo®.
Graphic: Logo of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, links to https://www.hhs.gov/.
Graphic: Logo of the NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, links to https://www.nichd.nih.gov/.
Graphic: Twitter logo, links to https://twitter.com/NICHD_NIH
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Graphic: Facebook logo, links to https://www.facebook.com/nichdgov/ .
Graphic: Pinterest logo, links to https://www.pinterest.com/NICHD_NIH/.
Graphic: Instagram logo, links to http://www.instagram.com/nichd_nih/ .
Back to Safe Sleep for Your Baby Infographic (Vertical) infographic.