New Program to Target Unsafe Sleeping and Shaken Baby Syndrome

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to develop the two-year program, based on a similar project in Baltimore, at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Supervisors Don Knabe and Mark Ridley-Thomas brought the motion, which originated from the Infant Safe Sleeping Task Force, sponsored by the Inter-Agency Council on Abuse and Neglect and the Board. The task force, which includes First 5 LA Commissioner Deanne Tilton, along with other professionals in the areas of medicine, child development, law and social and community services, learned of the project in Baltimore called the Infant Safe Sleeping and Abusive Head Trauma Pilot.

The Baltimore project, which focuses on preventive education for new parents when babies are born in a hospital, reported that four years have passed without a single abusive head trauma death and that the rate of sleep-related deaths in infants has decreased, too.

"Infant deaths resulting from unsafe sleeping practices or shaken baby syndrome are a preventable tragedy," Knabe said in a statement. "It is important that we educate parents on safe care for their newborn before they take their infants home from the hospital."

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Department reported that 140 infants died in the last two years in the county because of unsafe sleeping practices, which could include co-sleeping with adults, being placed on their stomachs or suffocation from bedding, among others, according to the motion.

There are no statistics cited on the number of babies who die or are disabled from brain injuries caused by being forcefully shaken in L.A. County, but the motion states that shaken baby syndrome destroys the brain and prevents it from receiving enough oxygen. "Survivors may require lifelong medical care for conditions such as partial or total blindness, hearing loss, developmental delays or learning problems or mental retardation," the motion states.

The pilot project is to include the following components:

• Educating nurses and social workers who work in the newborn nursery, neo-natal intensive care unit and pediatric services about safe sleeping practices and handling fragile infants.
• Teaching parents about safe sleeping practices and the risks associated with shaking babies before infants are discharged from the hospital.
• Working with the coroner to collect data on the number of infant deaths (one year and younger) of children born at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center that might be related to unsafe sleeping or shaking.
• Collecting performance-related data within three months of the pilot's end on the number of nurses, social workers and parents trained, evaluating the effectiveness of the pilot and developing a corrective action plan if there were infant deaths related to unsafe sleeping practices or abusive head trauma during the program.
• Potential permanent funding sources that would enable this pilot to expand to all county-operated hospitals.

First 5 LA advocates for, among other issues, the health and safety of all Los Angeles County children. Recently, the First 5 LA Board of Commissioners approved an infant safe-sleeping campaign. First 5 LA expects to continue to work closely with the county and I-CAN on the development of the pilot hospital program.

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