AAP: Back to Sleep, Back in the Crib

Monday the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a revised policy on SIDS prevention. Among the recommendations:

• Babies should be put to sleep on their back only; no side positioning
• Babies should be encouraged to sleep with pacifiers
• Babies should not sleep with, though should sleep near, parents

Their concern with side sleeping is that the baby can still roll or squirm on to her belly. I am curious to know if that is the case even with the little sleep positioners, which we used with both of our boys. [In looking for information, I came across this hugely depressing site where parents recount how their children died due to malfuntions of baby devices. You can click story to story...but I urge you not to, especially if you still have young children]

The academy acknowledges that pacifiers can interfere with establishing breastfeeding and recommends parents wait until the baby is a month old before using pacifiers.

As for co-sleeping, the statement says:

Bed sharing is not recommended during sleep. Infants may be brought into bed for nursing or comforting, but should be returned to their own crib or bassinet when the parent is ready to return to sleep. However, there is growing evidence that room sharing (infant sleeping in a crib in parent’s bedroom) is associated with a reduced risk of SIDS. The AAP recommends a separate but proximate sleeping environment.

I wonder what elements of room sharing benefit babies that the family bed or separate room sleeping do not? I guess if we had all the answers, SIDS would not still cause 2,500 deaths a year in the United States.