Milwaukee's Infant-Death Rate, SIDS and Crib Death Skyrockets

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the number of infants dying as they sleep is said by Milwaukee health officials to be at a crisis level in that city.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), many communities have Child Death Review Teams that meet regularly to thoroughly review child deaths in hopes of better understanding how and why children died. The purpose is to prevent other deaths and improve the health and safety of children.

In Milwaukee, this team is called the Pediatric Death Review Team. The Sentinel reports that the team meets every month to review infant deaths, identify causes and brainstorm parent education and prevention strategies. When the team met in June, it found that between December and May, 18 infants died. The team determined that unsafe sleeping environments may have been contributing factors in most, if not all, of the deaths in that 16 of the 18 infants were sleeping either with an adult or an older sibling.. However, Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen said final causes of death may still be pending in some of the cases.

The Sentinel says there were nine infant deaths related to unsafe sleeping environments between December and May of last year; this year's figures are twice as many.

Bevan Baker is the Milwaukee Health Commissioner. He said the message must get out to parents that their babies should never sleep with them, and when they put their infants down to sleep, they must always lay them on their backs. The Sentinel reports that Baker understands how difficult parenting can be and that in many of the cases where infants have died, the parents "tell us that it was just a temporary lapse or that they just sat or laid the child down for a moment," he said. "But an unsafe sleep environment will affect any baby - no matter the race - and so the advice given to parents has to be continuously reinforced by the community and anyone who comes into contact with mom, dad and baby."