The second death in five weeks of an infant who was "co-sleeping" with a parent has prompted police and officials to warn parents about the dangers of sleeping in the same space as young children.
The latest death occurred early Saturday in the village of Fort Edward, when a 1-month-old girl apparently suffocated as she slept with her mother on a couch. Police are investigating the case but said an autopsy performed at Albany Medical Center found no injuries, and there were no indications a crime was committed.
Fort Edward Police Sgt. Justin Derway said the mother awoke Saturday morning to find the girl was not breathing. He said another person in the home began CPR, and after 911 was called, Derway and a firefighter tried CPR as well, to no avail.
The circumstances were the same on Oct. 11, when an 8-month-old boy suffocated while sleeping with his mother on the couch of a Glens Falls home. Glens Falls Police are investigating that death but have found no evidence of foul play and have filed no charges.
In both cases, the mothers - in their teens - were staying at relatives' homes and did not have their own bedrooms, so they slept on couches. In the Fort Edward death, there was no crib for the child, police said.
Police said the mother in the Fort Edward case, who had other children, had apparently been warned about the dangers of co-sleeping.
"It appears accidental but certainly preventable," Fort Edward Police Chief Walt Sandford said.
Michael Guglielmoni, executive director of the Warren-Washington Counties Child Advocacy, Resource and Education (CARE) Center, said the agency plans to push for an increase in educational efforts that target new parents.
State Police Investigator Thomas Aiken said many parents don't understand that young children are very vulnerable to suffocation. In some instances, they can't move their heads to free their airways or cry to alert their parents to the danger, he said.
"Sometimes people don't realize how delicate infants are," Guglielmoni said.
Glens Falls Hospital increased its efforts to educate parents in 2006, after four children died in co-sleeping incidents in Warren and Washington counties in a few months. Before that spate of deaths, there had only been one such death in the preceding two years in the two counties, officials said.
But Aiken said officials in Warren and Washington counties want to create a video or other educational effort similar to what is shown to new parents about shaken baby syndrome.
Guglielmoni said he hopes the CARE Center can spearhead the development of pamphlets or other educational materials that can be shared with parents of young children.
"Parents are given information about this, but sometimes the message doesn't get through," he said.
Posted in Local on Monday, November 16, 2009 4:55 pm | Tags: Co-sleeping, Infant Deaths
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