Babies, Blankets, and Cribs a No No

CHICAGO (AP) — Researchers are reiterating warnings about blankets in babies' cribs, and they say parents are still ill-informed despite 17 years of national data. And blankets aren't the only potentially dangerous items.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed annual telephone surveys involving nearly 20,000 parents. They find too many U.S. infants sleep with blankets, pillows or other unsafe bedding that may lead to suffocation or sudden infant death syndrome, despite guidelines recommending against the practice.

As late as 2010, more than half still used blankets or other soft bedding for their infants. That doesn't mean letting babies freeze; safe sleepwear and keeping the room at a comfortable temperature are advised. Accidental suffocation in bed, though uncommon, is the leading cause of injury-related deaths in infants. The study is published in today's Pediatrics.