Breaking News: Breastfeeding Is Associated with a Lower Risk of SIDS According to The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine
: "Breastfeeding Is Associated with a Lower Risk of SIDS According to The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine
10/14/2005 2:26:00 PM EST

Contrary to even the recommendations of its own Section
on Breastfeeding, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released an
ill-advised and ill-informed statement from its Task Force on SIDS (1)
(sudden infant death syndrome). Recommendations that advise against
parent-infant bed-sharing and support the generic use of pacifiers
imply a 'truly astounding triumph of ethnocentric assumptions over
common sense and medical research,' according to Nancy Wight, M.D.,
president of The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. These
controversies, and many more, will be addressed in the upcoming, new
peer-reviewed journal Breastfeeding Medicine (www.liebertpub.com/bfm),
the Official Journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine
(www.brmed.org).

Current research from the CDC (2), as well as AAP's existing
policy statement on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk (3), note
that breastfeeding is associated with a lower risk of SIDS. Since
1992, SIDS has decreased as both co-sleeping and breastfeeding have
increased. Sleeping near one's baby or in the same room has been shown
to reduce the risks of SIDS and more broadly promote maternal and
child health by facilitating breastfeeding. As exclusively breastfed
infants feed frequently through the night, breastfeeding is thought to
reduce SIDS by the same proposed mechanism as supine sleep and
pacifiers, namely less deep sleep and frequent brief awakenings.
Breastfed babies do not need artificial pacifiers to get stimulation
since they already have the protective effect of suckling during the
night."