Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Join the Kittitas County Coroner’s Office in Making October Safe Sleep Month.

Kittitas County, WA - 10/08/2024 - Since announcing our partnership with Cribs for Kids the Kittitas County Coroner's Office has placed several Pack n' Plays and other safe sleep products with local healthcare and community support offices. By providing safe sleep education and products we can reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Chief Deputy Coroner Cori McKean wishes to thank everyone who has committed to prioritizing safe sleep in our community.

October is National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month

What is SIDS? This is a term used to describe the sudden death of an infant who’s usually less that one year old and seems to be healthy. Death often happens during sleep.
According to the latest safe infant sleep research, a safe sleep area:

• Is firm and flat
• Is level
• Is covered only with a fitted sheet nothing oversize and “tucked in”
• Has no objects or toys
• Has no weighted blankets or weighted swaddles
• Always has baby placed to sleep on their back
• Is in the parents’ room, but separate from their bed

Researchers have found some things that might put babies at higher risk, a combination of factors:

• Brain defects in the part of the brain that controls breathing and waking up from sleep, it hasn’t developed or doesn’t work properly
• Respiratory infection
• Low birth weight
• Sleeping on stomach or side at night or during naps
• Sleeping on a soft surface with squishy items such as a fluffy blanket, comforter, soft mattress, waterbed, stuffed toys, or crib bumpers
• Sharing bed with others which may include parent, sibling, caregiver, or pet
• Secondhand smoke, babies who live with smokers have a higher risk of SIDS
• Overheating. Being too warm can increase a baby’s risk of SIDS. Avoid using hats on infants (except in the first hours of life and in the NICU)

Research also shows to reduce risk of SIDS:

• Use a pacifier for naps and at night to reduce the risk of death by 50%
• Breastfeeding your baby reduces the risk of death
• Provide baby with their own safe sleep space that is clutter free

To learn more about infant safe sleep guidelines and Cribs for Kids mission to help every baby sleep safer, please visit:
www.co.kittitas.wa.us/coroner/
www.cribsforkids.org
safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov/
charlieskids.org/
 

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Kittitas County, from the Cascades to the Columbia, and online at http://www.co.kittitas.wa.us

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Contact: Cori McKean
Chief Deputy Coroner
(509) 933-8200