Updates to the AAP Safe Sleep Policy

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released updated guidance on the Safe Sleep Policy. These updates provide detailed additions to the current safe sleep policy, where previous recommendations were more general. Some updates include:

• Sleep surfaces with inclines of >10 degrees are unsafe for infant sleep and should therefore be avoided.
• Given the questionable benefit of hat use for the prevention of hypothermia and the risk of overheating, it is advised not to place hats on infants when indoors except in the first hours of life or in the NICU.
• Parents are encouraged to place the infant in tummy time while awake and supervised for short periods of time beginning soon after hospital discharge, increasing incrementally to at least 15-30 min total daily by age 7 wk.
• Weighted swaddle clothing or weighted objects within swaddles are not safe and therefore not recommended.
• Use of home cardiorespiratory monitors are not required to meet the same regulatory requirements as medical devices and, by the nature of their FDA designation, are not to be used to prevent sleep-related deaths.