Safe sleep for your baby

Safe sleep for your baby reduces the risk of sudden infant death.

Top tips

✅ Place your baby on their back to sleep from the very beginning for both day and night sleeps.

⚠️ This will reduce the risk of sudden infant death (sometimes called cot death). Side sleeping is not as safe as sleeping on the back. Healthy babies placed on their backs are less likely to choke. When your baby is old enough to roll over they should not be prevented from doing this.

✅ Babies may get flattening on the part of the head they lay on. This will become rounder again as they grow. Encourage your baby to lie on their tummy to play while they are awake and being supervised. Experiencing a range of different positions and a variety of movement while awake is also good for a baby’s development.

✅ The safest place for your baby to sleep is on their back, in a crib or cot, in a room with you for the first 6 months.

❌ Do not share a bed with your baby if you or your partner:

• are smokers (no matter where or when you smoke, even if you never smoke in bed)
• have recently drunk alcohol
• have taken medication or drugs that make you sleep more heavily
• feel very tired

⚠️ It is safest to always make sure there is at least 1 adult who has not recently drunk alcohol caring for a baby.

⚠️ The risks of bedsharing also increased if your baby:

• was born premature (before 37 weeks)
• had a low birth weight (less than 2.5kg or 5.5lbs)

⚠️ There is also risk that you might roll over in your sleep and suffocate your baby, or that your baby could get caught between the wall and the bed. They could also roll out of an adult bed and be injured.

✅ It is lovely to have your baby with you for a cuddle or a feed but it is safest to put your baby in their cot before you go to sleep.

✅ Plan where your baby is going to sleep if you or your baby will be sleeping somewhere other than home.

✅ If your baby is going to sleep in a different cot or away from home (such as at grandparents or a friends) make sure this advice is still followed. Your baby should still sleep in an appropriate cot or crib.

Stop smoking

🚭 Smoking while pregnant greatly increases the risk of sudden infant death. It is best to not smoke at all, and for your partner and anyone else in the house to also not smoke.

🚭 Do not let anyone smoke in the same room as your baby. Nobody should smoke in the house, including visitors. Anyone who needs to smoke should go outside.

❌ Do not take your baby to smoky places, including cars where there is smoke.

❌ There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke for your baby.

If you are pregnant and want to stop smoking, please call the Sheffield NHS Stop Smoking Service on 0114 553 6296 or 07833 048200, or text YSF to 80800.

A range of stop smoking services are available across the city, including:

• specialist support for pregnant women
• workplace support
• sessions delivered through GPs and pharmacies
• sessions in community settings

The right temperature

🌡️ Do not let your baby get too hot or too cold. Overheating can increase the risk of sudden infant death. Babies can overheat because of too much bedding or clothing, or because the room is too hot.

✅ If your baby is sweating or their tummy is hot to the touch, take off some of the bedding. Do not worry if your baby’s hands or feet feel cool, this is normal.

✅ It is easier to adjust temperature with lightweight blankets. Remember, a folded blanket counts as 2 blankets.

🌡️ Babies do not need hot rooms. Heating a room all night is rarely necessary. Keep the room at a temperature that is comfortable for you at night, around 18 degrees C (65 degrees F).

✅ If it is very warm, your baby may not need any bedclothes other than a sheet.

✅ Even in winter, most babies who are unwell or feverish do not need extra clothes.

❌ Babies should never sleep with a hot water bottle or electric blanket, near a radiator or fire, or in direct sunlight.

❌ Babies release heat they don’t need from their heads, so make sure their head cannot be covered by bedclothes when they are sleeping.

❌ Remove any hats and extra clothing as soon as you come indoors or enter a warm car, bus or train, even if it means waking your baby.

Keep their head uncovered

Do not let your baby’s head become covered. Babies whose heads are covered with bedding are at an increased risk of sudden infant death.

✅ To prevent your baby wriggling down under the covers, place your baby’s feet at the foot of their crib, cot or pram.

✅ Make the covers up so they reach no higher than their shoulders, and tuck them in so they cannot slip over your baby’s head.

✅ Use layers of lightweight blankets.

✅ Make sure your baby’s mattress is firm, flat, well-fitting, and clean, and cover it with a single sheet. The outside of the mattress should also be waterproof.

❌ Never use duvets, quilts, baby nests, wedges, bedding rolls or pillows.

Feeding

Breastfeeding your baby reduces the risk of sudden infant death.

✅ Breastmilk gives babies all the nutrients they need for the first 6 months of life and helps protect them from infection. It also reduces mother’s chance of getting certain diseases later in life.

✅ It is natural to have questions or need some extra support to breastfeed successfully. Your midwife, health visitor or GP can help.

⚠️ It is possible that using a dummy at the start of any sleep period reduces the risk of sudden infant death. Do not give your baby a dummy until your breastfeeding is well-established, usually when your baby is around 1 month old. Stop giving your baby their dummy when they are between 6 and 12 months old.

What if my baby is unwell?

If your baby is unwell, seek medical advice promptly.

✅ Make sure your baby drinks plenty of fluids and is not too hot. If your baby sleeps a lot, wake them regularly for a drink.

Serious illness

⚠️ Signs your baby might be seriously ill:

• high pitched or weak cry
• less responsive
• much less active
• more floppy than usual
• looks pale all over
• grunts with each breath
• seems to be working hard to breathe when you look at their chest or tummy
• takes less than a third of their usual fluids
• is weeing less than usual
• has green sick
• blood in their poo
• fever of 38 degrees C or above if your baby is less than 3 months old
• fever of 39 degrees C or above if your baby is 3 to 6 months old
• is dehydrated, such as dry mouth, no tears, sunken eyes, soft spot on their head is sunken
• rash that does not disappear with pressure

Urgent medical attention

⚠️ Signs your baby is unwell and needs urgent medical attention:

• stops breathing or goes blue
• unresponsive and shows no awareness of what is going on
• glazed eyes and does not focus on anything
• will not wake up
• has a fit

If any of the above happen, immediately dial 999 and ask for an ambulance.

Sudden infant death is rare

Please remember that sudden infant death is very rare.

Research is continuing to help us understand more about why it happens and how it can be prevented.

The information in this resource can reduce the risk of infant death, but it is not a guarantee to prevent it completely.

Since parents and carers have been following this risk reduction advice, the number of babies dying has reduced by over 70 percent.