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Safe Sleep NC

Helping Babies Sleep Safer

Keep soft objects and loose bedding out of your baby’s sleep area.

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Keep soft objects and loose bedding out of your baby's sleep area.

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If you are worried about your baby getting cold, you can use infant sleep clothing, such as a wearable blanket. In general, your baby should be dressed with only one layer more than you are wearing.

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These objects can increase your baby’s risk of entrapment, suffocation or strangulation. This includes pillows and pillow-like toys, quilts, comforters, mattress toppers, non-fitted sheets, blankets, toys, bumper pads or related products that attach to crib slats or sides.

  • If you’re worried about your baby getting cold, you can dress them in layers of clothing or use a wearable blanket. In general, you should dress your baby in only one layer more than you’re wearing.
  • Don’t use weighted blankets, sleepers, swaddles or other weighted objects on or near your baby.

If you are worried about your baby getting cold, you can use infant sleep clothing, such as a wearable blanket. In general, your baby should be dressed with only one layer more than you are wearing.

No. Bumper pads should never be used in an infant’s crib. We now have crib safety standards that make bumper pads unnecessary. The bars on newer cribs are no longer wide enough that a baby could get their head stuck in the crib bars and hurt themselves. Bumper pads can be very dangerous because they can cause suffocation and/or entrapment.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s standards now require crib bars to be no further apart than 2 3/8 inches. An easy test is to take a normal can of soda and try to fit it between the bars. If it fits, your crib does not meet the current safety standards.

Yes, but make sure that the baby is always on his or her back when swaddled. The swaddle should not be too tight or make it hard for the baby to breathe or move his or her hips. When your baby looks like he or she is trying to roll over, you should stop swaddling.

  • No. Having two or more babies will mean having two or more cribs or portable cribs—one for each baby. The AAP states that each baby should sleep on his or her own sleep surface. There are special bassinets made for two babies–remember do not put your twins together in a bassinet made for one baby. There is not enough room for them to sleep safely.
  • Babies sleeping together can increase the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and suffocation.
  • Twins are also more likely to be born prematurely or have low birth weights, both of which can put them at an increased risk of SIDS and other sleep-related deaths.
  • It can be hard to fit two cribs into one bedroom, especially since it is recommended that babies sleep in the same room as their parents for the first six to 12 months. Smaller bassinets and portable cribs can help save space.
  • When your babies are sleeping remember that they each should sleep in a crib (portable crib or bassinet) with a flat, firm surface and a tight, fitted sheet. Skip all soft bedding, including pillows and bumper pads.
  • Once your twin babies leave sleeping in your room (in their own separate cribs), it’s up to you whether you want to put them in separate rooms or in the same room in separate cribs.