Thursday, September 30, 2010

Caregiver Alert: Sleep Positioners of Babies Can Cause Death

“We urge parents and caregivers to take our warning seriously and stop using these sleep positioners, so that children can have a safer sleep.”
CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum



The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers to stop using infant sleep positioners. Over the past 13 years, CPSC and the FDA have received 12 reports of infants between the ages of 1 month and 4 months who died when they suffocated in sleep positioners or became trapped and suffocated between a sleep positioner and the side of a crib or bassinet.


Most of the infants suffocated after rolling from a side to stomach position. In addition to the reported deaths, CPSC has received dozens of reports of infants who were placed on their backs or sides in sleep positioners, only to be found later in potentially hazardous positions within or next to the sleep positioners.


“To date, there is no scientifically sound evidence that infant sleep positioners prevent SIDS,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner and a pediatrician. “We want to make sure parents, health care professionals, and childcare providers understand the potential risk of suffocation and stop using infant sleep positioners.”


There are two main types of infant sleep positioners. The flat mats with side bolsters or inclined (wedge) mats with side bolsters. Both typically claim to help keep infants on their backs and reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The FDA has never cleared an infant sleep positioner to prevent or reduce the risk of SIDS. In addition, CPSC and the FDA are unaware of any scientific studies demonstrating that infant positioners prevent SIDS or are proven to prevent suffocation or other life-threatening harm. And even the American Academy of Pediatrics does not support the use of any sleep positioner to prevent SIDS.





However these sleep positioners claim to have the following advantages:
  • Aid in food digestion to ease colic or the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
  • Prevent flat head syndrome (plagiocephaly)

These benefits on the other hand didn't outweighs the risk of sleep positioners that's why CPSC and the FDA are warning parents and people in hospital scrubs or cartoon scrubs (the caregivers) to:
  • STOP using sleep positioners. Using a positioner to hold an infant on his or her back or side for sleep is dangerous and unnecessary.
  • NEVER put pillows, infant sleep positioners, comforters, or quilts under a baby or in a crib.
  • ALWAYS place an infant on his or her back at night and during nap time. To reduce the risk of SIDS, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends placing infants to sleep on their backs and not their sides.
Read more: Deaths prompt CPSC, FDA warning on infant sleep positioners

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Is Hospital a Safe Place to Go?

"Once considered safe havens, health care institutions today are confronting steadily increasing rates of crime, including violent crime."
Joint Commission


Since 2004, the number of assaults, rapes and murders reported to the Joint Commission rose steadily, with the greatest number of reports in the last three years. There were 36 incidents nationwide in 2007, 41 in 2008 and 33 in 2009. According to the Joint Commission’s voluntary reporting system, there were 256 assaults, rapes or homicides of patients and visitors at American health centers since 1995, with 110 of those acts occurring after 2007. That number is likely far lower than the actual number of incidents because violence in health settings is often underreported, the group said.


They further said that violence is often perpetrated by staff, visitors, patients and even intruders. What happened on Baltimore hospital wherein the gunman Warren Davis,who reportedly hid inside his mother's room, shot and killed himself and his mother is a perfect example of how violence is growing INSIDE the hospital. I'm talking here all the kinds of violence that were committed; assaults, rapes, homicides and many more.


Hospitals are supposedly one of the institutions and places wherein one could be at peace since healing and cure are happening here. This is where ill and sick people take refuge. However with this growing violence even inside the hospital, the hospital could pose a great threat for patients and even to the men and women in medical scrubs and nursing shoes who are working there. This event will eventually affect the medical world itself.


The proper authorities must make a move before it is too late. Where in the world would people who are sick and ill go if there are no institutions like hospitals? Or where could we find a peaceful place here on earth? Whew!