I read from the Center of Disease and Control website that there are around 4,200 SUIDs or sudden unexpected infant deaths per year in the US and 50% of which are caused by SIDS, which is the leading cause of infant death from 1–12 months old. The cause of death is either unknown or sleep-related suffocation. For sleep related suffocation, the main culprit is usually loose bedding. Bedding that bunches up around a baby’s mouth can cause dangerous re-breathing of carbon dioxide –– a leading risk factor for SIDS.
Here in the Philippines, we don’t hear as much news about SIDS. If we don’t hear about it, it doesn’t mean that there are no cases of SIDS. We don’t hear much about this syndrome because of lack of awareness and documentation and NOT because it does not happen. A friend of mine attended a parenting seminar at St. Lukes recently and believe it or not, 5 out of 40 moms knew someone who lost their baby to SIDS. That’s already 12.5% of the Moms on that event! She also heard of a story, where a mom had just finished feeding her daughter a bottle and placed her daughter on the bed to burp. She only turned her back on the baby to clean up the bottles and when she came back, her baby had already died of suffocation.
I also heard of a baby that died, while he was sleeping beside the parents during a family vacation. How about you? Do you know of any similar story?
It’s good that babies are never left alone (laging may nakabantay) in our country. If not the parents, the grandparents, yaya or househelp, aunts and uncles, etc. are all willing volunteers to look after baby. But even if we watch baby 24/7, we know that as humans, we get tired and we fall asleep. We can practice safe sleep though. This is to keep babies safe while they are sleeping.
Here are tips for safe sleep:
We recently tried using a wearable blanket for Zeeka. We never really got to swaddle her when she was a baby. She hated the fact that she could not move her arms. We would then use a loose blanket with yaya watching over her when she slept. But of course, she would kick the blanket away from her so it was actually useless to use a loose blanket. Now that I learned about safe sleep, I was excited to try the HALO Sleep Sack.
The HALO Sleep Sack
First of all, using HALO SleepSack wearable blanket is safe. I would not have to worry about sudden infant deaths. I wouldn’t even have to worry about yaya dozing off at night. She can actually have her rest, too.
HALO is the only product to carry the seals of First Candle/SIDS Alliance and the Canadian Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (CFSID).
Zeeka in a HALO Sleep Sack
I had Zeeka try it and she loved it. First of all, the blanket had sleeves so she was free to move her arms. It was perfect for her! Also, she loves kicking her legs and I was glad that there was enough leg room. With a loose blanket, she would kick it until she didn’t have any blanket covering her. With this, no matter how much she kicks, she still feels cozy and warm.
I also love the feel of the blanket. I was also easy to wash. My yaya just hand-washed it and let it dry. And do you see the design? It was soooo Zeeka! She loves owls and it was a coincidence that the design of her HALO Sleep sack was an image of an owl 🙂
I would recommend it to friends and to you, my readers, since it really is safer. I hope that they would come out with more designs.
For more information about the product, please visit the HALO Philippines Facebook Page.
Love lots,
Mommy Ginger
