Bond with your baby without bed sharing

October is Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Awareness Month.

Reno, Nevada. Oct. 2, 2018. As part of our ongoing campaign to raise awareness, HSA and the Washoe County Health District are focusing on promoting safe sleep during Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Awareness Month by working with WIC clinics and the Renown Pregnancy Center to hand out fragile freight onesies to new parents. The onesie is a gentle reminder about the importance of practicing the ABCs when putting an infant to sleep. HSA reminds anyone caring for an infant to put a baby to sleep alone, always on their back and in a crib.

SUID is the leading cause of death among infants under the age of one in Washoe County. There have been 19 infant deaths in Washoe County since 2014, all due to unsafe sleep situations in otherwise healthy infants. SUID is the sudden and unexpected death of an infant less than one year old without an obvious cause of death before investigation. Most SUID cases are reported as one of three types: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), unknown causes, or accidental suffocation in bed.  It is now recognized that the largest category of SUID occurs in unsafe sleeping environments, which include bed sharing with adults.

In addition to fragile freight onesie, HSA has partnered with the State of Nevada’s Safe Sleep Committee to inform Nevadans about the importance of safe sleep environments for infants in the following ways:

• 50 bulletins and billboards with Lamar Advertising in Washoe County
• 3 Regional Transportation Commission bus wraps during the summer
• More than 109,000 safe sleep inserts included in mailed TMWA bills
• Website and social media messaging
• News releases to media and more than 30,000 members of the community via email
• Fragile freight onesie for infants

For more information about ways to practice safe sleep, check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

REMSA also wants to ensure your baby has a safe place to sleep. REMSA continues to work with community partners to help educate the community on safe sleep practices. If your baby does not have a crib, please call REMSA Cribs for Kids Coordinator, Francisco Ceballos, at 775-353-0727.

HSA partnered with the Child Death Review funds through the State of Nevada Health and Human Services.