Deadly Parenting Mistakes

Deadly Parenting Mistakes Dr. Travis Stork: We’re back with the parent alert about some of the deadly mistakes new parents make in the nursery so Jim what’s the first big mistake? Dr. Jim Sears: Alright this is actually probably one of the biggest mistake parents make and I’m going to show you right now. Well, you're baby is sleeping in the crib and you’re doing like that. Dr. Travis Stork: No, no. Dr. Jim Sears: On their belly, a big, big no, no! You guys know why? I hope because putting your baby on their belly to sleep can to S.I.D.s, sudden infant death syndrome. You always want them to have them sleep on their back. And since we’ve made that change, the incidence of S.I.D.s has gone in half. 50 percent less babies die in the crib just from sleeping on their backs. Dr. Travis Stork: So your babies should really never be sleeping on their stomach. Dr. Jim Sears: Never on their stomachs. And also look at this crib. It’s a nice safe crib. It’s a bare crib, there’s no blankets. There’s no stuff animals, there’s no pampers, nothing for them to get tangled in or suffocate under. Dr. Travis Stork: Or suffocate right? Dr. Jim Sears: Exactly. Dr. Travis Stork: Okay so that’s a great tip. What’s another great tip? Dr. Jim Sears: Another great tip is thinking about the baby’s head in the baby’s brain. You know, first off you always want to support the neck. That the baby’s head is so big compared to the rest of his body and that muscles just aren’t support their head and you’ve taken really hyper extend their neck. Also, you’ve got to remember the soft spot. Dr. Travis Stork: Right. Dr. Jim Sears: You know this where the, you know all the bones in the baby’s scalp. They’re not fused together yet. Where they meet, they kind of like, like the joints of my fingers. They can expand as the baby’s brain grows, it let’s the skull expand. And where are these bones come in the middle, there’s a little space called the fontanel. It’s kind of an opening and that’s a place in the brain that’s not protective. So you’re going to make sure siblings and other take caretakers kind of know that, that’s a gentle area.