Safe sleeping tips for baby

Don’t bring the baby into your bed if you or your partner smokes. The research associating cigarette smoke exposure and SIDS is strong. Amazingly, even if you or your partner only smokes outdoors and never around the baby, there are still enough harmful chemicals in a smoker’s exhaled breath to increase a baby’s risk.

Do use a fan in the room where your baby sleeps. A 2008 study found that having a fan in baby’s bedroom reduces the risk of SIDS by a whopping 72 percent. And as you’ve no doubt already heard, put your baby to sleep on her back, not her stomach.
Don’t let baby sleep in a bouncy seat or swing unless you’re awake. Swing- and bouncy-seat straps and padding can create suffocation and entrapment hazards.

If your baby sleeps best in her car seat that’s okay, just be sure to put the car seat on a stable surface like the floor or in the crib  and not on an elevated surface like a table, countertop, chair or washing machine.

Don’t bring your baby into bed if you or your partner has been drinking or taking sedating medications, or if you’re a heavy sleeper. If your partner is the heavy sleeper, put the baby on your side of the bed and use a bed rail to prevent roll-off.
Unless you’re positive you will never, ever let your baby into the adult bed, be sure to give your bed a thorough check for entrapment hazards. Gaps between the mattress and headboard or between the bed and nightstand or wall can create places for your baby’s head to get wedged if she rolls off. The safest parent bed is a mattress or futon on the floor and no bed frame.

Don’t leave a baby alone in an adult bed. Even newborns can scoot themselves off if they wake up and discover mom isn’t there.
Don’t use a baby sleep positioner in a crib, bassinet or adult bed. They can create pockets of exhaled air, a suffocation hazard.

Ban the fluff. Plushy crib bumpers, pillows, quilts and stuffed animals can also create dangerous carbon dioxide pockets and suffocation hazards, so keep them out of baby’s sleep area. Dress the baby in a sleep sack, pajamas or a swaddled blanket to keep baby warm in the crib.

Don’t swaddle the baby or use a sleep sack in an adult bed — your baby needs to be able to kick off any bedding that might fall on her face accidentally.
Keep pillows and blankets away from your baby’s face if your baby comes into the adult bed.

Always respond to baby’s cries, and don’t try to keep baby on a feeding schedule or make her cry herself to sleep for at least the first six months (if ever). If you’re trying to establish breastfeeding, you can’t feed too often but you can feed too little. For the first week, your baby should nurse at least every 4 hours (if not more often), day and night. After the first week, though, don’t wake her up to feed if she sleeps more than four hours overnight.

Source: www.greatexpectationspregnancy.com/2012/12/12-ways-to-help-your-baby-sleep-safely/#comment-3355

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