There are few things that are scarier to new parents than the prospect of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). SIDS is defined  as the “sudden death of an infant under one year of age that remains unexplained after a complete investigation, which includes an autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the symptoms or illnesses the infant had prior to dying and any other pertinent medical history.” Sounds pretty terrifying, right?

While there is no way to absolutely eliminate the risk of SIDS, there are several practices that you can do to reduce your baby’s risk. SIDS most often affects babies between the ages of 1 and 4 months. The most important thing you can do to reduce the risk of SIDS for your baby is to ALWAYS put your baby to sleep on his or her back and never on his stomach or sides. You should  also be sure not to ever put your infant down alone in a bean bag, waterbed, or blanket that can cover the baby’s face.

Thermal stress (getting overheated) is also believed to increase the risk of SIDS. This risk can easily be mitigated by keeping your infant at a comfortable room temperature  and try to avoid excessive bedclothes or too much bundling. Other factors that are believed to increase the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome include exposure to second hand smoke and smoking during pregnancy.

The incidence of SIDS has been declining in recent years which has likely been due to better awareness among parents of these risk factors and the Back to Sleep campaign. While SIDS is not something that you need to stress over as a new parent, it is very important to take the simple steps to avoid these risk factors.