Evolving View on Sleeping for Babies ( Mums need to know)

   Putting babies to sleep on their backs was common in many societies until the early 20th century, when many US doctors started to promote the opposite.

   Believers in stomach sleeping, including Dr, Benjamin Spock, preach that prone sleeping could prevent babies from choking on their own vomit or developing pneumonia caused by inhalation of vomits or foreign objects.

    Decades on that message made it difficult to change sleep practices once studies found that back sleeping reduced the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome(Sids) by morethan 50%.

    In 1992, federal officials estimated that only 13% of babies slept on their backs. Thanks in part to a "Back to sleep" campaign that started in 1994, that figure increased to 73% by 2003. Today, virtually all medical authorities agree that children should be put to sleep on their backs.

Source: Gulf Times