DCFS changes policy on “unsafe sleep deaths”
Friday, Sep 12, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* As the Tribune reports today on the front page, this change of policy “will likely lead to a drop in reported maltreatment fatalities”…
Hoping to better investigate such deaths [which occur when a parent falls asleep with a child or other unsafe sleeping conditions] statewide, DCFS in recent years began counting unsafe sleep deaths as neglect in cases where investigators could prove the adult caregiver was aware of the potential danger. Amid criticism over the increased child death tallies and disagreement on whether sleep-related deaths constitute neglect, DCFS now will investigate such cases only if suspicious circumstances are found. Those include physical injuries to the child, the caregivers’ admitted alcohol or drug use, a lack of supervision or prior agency involvement. […]
Child welfare officials in Indiana say they investigate all sudden and unexplained deaths. But Michigan, similar to Illinois’ new stance, does not count such sleep-related deaths as negligence unless a secondary factor becomes evident.
In a recent report on unsafe sleep fatalities, Illinois DCFS Inspector General Denise Kane said it is “ill-advised” to indicate that a parent is responsible for child neglect until lawmakers officially recognize it as negligent or medical experts agree on how unsafe the practice of co-sleeping with a baby really is. […]
The ACLU’s Wolf and child advocates such as SIDS of Illinois agree with Kane, especially in light of repeated state budget cuts when DCFS has limited resources.
“Yes, it’s negligence, but I don’t think that’s what the public thinks abuse is all about,” Wolf said. “We ought to reserve the category of abuse and neglect for the really horrible things that endanger kids.”
A Tribune review of several infant deaths involving co-sleeping in 2013 and 2014 highlighted the troubling conditions that sometimes exist in those homes. Records reviewed by the newspaper revealed instances where more than one child over time had died in the same family after being left in an unsafe sleep condition. In those cases, DCFS officials say, the agency still would investigate even under the new policy.
It sounds like we need more public awareness of this problem.
- Cassandra - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 12:49 pm:
I put all my kids on their stomachs to sleep (they survived). My adult kids don’t do that, of course, and it now appears that you can’t put blankets in the crib either, the babies sleep in those little blanket sleeper things. And then there is tummy time, where you try to make up for the fact that the baby must spend so much time on her back, sleeping. It’s a new day.
- Wensicia - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 12:50 pm:
I believe public awareness, as in education, should be attempted before taking this step. I agree medical experts should identify where and how co-sleeping with a child establishes neglect.
- Tired New Dad - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 12:55 pm:
Your right about more Public awareness Rich.
However i don’t think it’ll address the problem. We just had our second son. At every dr. visit and daily at the Hospital we were told how unsafe it was to sleep with baby in the bed and shown exactly what the safest way to put baby down to rest. All this when they knew we had a 2 yrd old. The health proffesionals are doing a wonderful job of attempting to enlighten people.
On the other hand i can’t count the number of Social media threads i have seen advocating for co-sleeping (baby in bed with mom and dad) as supposedly healthier for the babby’s psyche, mom’s psyche, family bonding, more natural, cures colic, etc.. I’ve met profesional intelligent women who buy into this crap with their kids. Common sense tells you what a incredible tragedy you tempt.
None are as blind as those who will not see.
- Pot calling kettle - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 12:56 pm:
Co-sleeping with babies is a common practice world-wide. Only in the U.S. do we consider putting a baby in a cage with no blankets, pillows or parents to be a “best practice.”
We kept our babies in bed between my wife and I until they were several months old and they both survived. I cannot imagine sticking them alone in a cold crib.
Now, stepping off of my soap box.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 1:22 pm:
We have young kids, so we went out of our way to do everything we could to follow every bit of advice with each and every kid.
As if we didn’t sleep anyway - holy crap. We didn’t sleep for months with all these kids!
- Jocko - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 1:43 pm:
Pot apparently never turns in his sleep.
http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/Bed-Sharing-Remains-Greatest-Risk-Factor-for-Sleep-Related-Infant-Deaths.aspx
- Nonplussed - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 1:46 pm:
Infant mortality has dropped a lot since 1950, due to many factors but also due to sleeping on backs, no blankets in cribs, etc.
Here is a chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality#mediaviewer/File:Infant_Mortality_Rate_by_Region_1950-2050.png
- dupage dan - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 2:00 pm:
I’m with PCK. My sister co-slept with her 4 children. Ms dupage dan and I co-slept with our boy. Co-sleeping is quite common thruout the world. The danger comes when a person may be compromised in some way that effects their ability to respond to others in the bed. Alcohol or other substances can effect your sub-conscious awareness. If you are under the influence when you go to bed, you are putting the child at risk. I consider myself a sound sleeper and yet I was aware of the presence of my son. Fully.
Off my soapbox now.
- carbaby - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 2:00 pm:
In the cases where there are no other risk factors present that contributed to the death, I don’t believe this will make a statistically significant difference.
In the last few years I have known that indicated reports for this when appealed have been reversed.
This has/does come up at the Death Review which is comprised of several physicians along with other child welfare experts including OIG.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 2:01 pm:
PK -
The “rest of the world” does not sleep on box springs and pillow top mattresses with six pillows and duvets.
The “rest of the world” doesn’t require carseats either, yet child fatalities in the US have plummeted.
Meanwhile, the number of people co-sleeping with their kids has skyrocketed thanks to the “family bed” argument, and the number of sleep suffocations has risen right along with it.
Every time a parent shares a bed with a child, they are gambling with that infant’s life.
Why?
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 2:15 pm:
BTW, Here is why every sleep suffocation should be investigated.
Authorities: Capital murder suspect suffocated infant son
8/11/14
(WAAY) - Court documents filed in the case of a Huntsville man charged with capital murder claim he suffocated his infant son.
According to an arrest warrant, Sergino Larenta Richard, 26, used his hands to suffocate Sergino Richard-Key Jr.
Richard was arrested Wednesday by Madison County investigators and charged with capital murder.
Authorities said the infant was pronounced dead in the early morning hours July 12 at Madison Hospital.
Richard is being held in the Madison County Metro Jail without bond.
- Margo - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 2:18 pm:
Most of these studies do not differntiate whether there were other factors such as alcohol or even if they were cosleeping on a couch which is very dangerous. There are safe ways to do it such as an attaching bassinet.
- MrJM - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 2:23 pm:
Regardless of whether or not it is “best practices”, for me a parent’s sharing a bed with a child creates a rebuttable presumption that the parent cares about/for the child.
– MrJM
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 3:08 pm:
Margo:
A separate bassinet is not bed sharing. That is room sharing.
The studies are clear, abundantly clear, but some
People continue to deny the science the way we denied smoking is a health hazard.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 3:18 pm:
MrJM:
Whether or not to determine the child’s death was due to neglect or not is a secondary concern.
If the department isn’t investigating the deaths, we don’t know whether it was accidental or homicide.
- robert lincoln - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 3:31 pm:
Pot calling Kettle’s comment is precisely the reason why cosleeping deaths occur. The dangers are real. The numbers of deaths in Illinois alone are staggering. Yet, cosleeping has strong support including “experts”. And we all have done it. Until that one time you are exhausted, roll over, pin your baby and she suffocates. It is not neglect. It is not criminal. When you hear each case it makes you want to scream! and cry. And as Ms. Kane has indicated, it is the poor and the minority families who bear the brunt of the disproportionate enforcement. Hospitals do all they can. Their has to be a media campaign that defeats the practice and demonstrates the fatal dangers.
- Confused - Friday, Sep 12, 14 @ 3:36 pm:
“My kids survived co-sleeping so it must be safe.” Heck, why even put them in carseats or seatbelts? I mean, I and my siblings survived childhood without either.