"Our county has had more than its share of SIDS deaths this year, so the
Health Department is very sensitive to anything that may imply a risk.  I
did point out that NONE of the deaths were with breastfeeding moms."

We had a similar situation of alarmingly high infant death rates (w/in 1st
12 mo. of life)several years ago; the # included SIDS deaths, auto
accidents, and a baby who was thrown out of an upstairs window by its
mother. We're a small county, so it didn't take a huge number of deaths to
really change the death rate. Anyway, what I found significant in those
deaths was that EVERY SINGLE ONE of those infants had been targeted (by me,
I will sadly add) as being at "high risk" because of their situations. All
had had urgent referrals made to the Public Health nurses (who follow our
high risk families) and/or the Children's Protective Services because of
chaotic home situations. None of them were breastfeeding babies (which in
itself says something, if you ask me). None were families that were
"attachment parenting" or "co-sleeping" as a parenting philosophy - if any
slept with parents, I'm sure it was because there wasn't anyplace else for
them to sleep, and/or no caretakers responsible/sober/on the ball enough to
make the babies' safety & well-being their top priority.

Does any of this support Dr. Keens' contentions opposing James McKenna's
work. NO! These were not children in loving, safe homes - they were babies
whose parents were not able to care for them the way babies should be cared
for. We *knew* those babies were not going to families where they would have
a reasonable expectation of growing up safe and healthy. It's one of those
times when being able to identify the problems in advance wasn't very
satisfying; I wish that I had not been able to check back through my records
for that year and say "I told you so"! Didn't do those poor children much
good, after all...

What's it have to do with BFing/co-sleeping? We haven't seen those numbers
in families that do BF and co-sleep, at least in the many years that I've
been in a position to know who these families are.

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC

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