Low-cost Crib Distribution & Sleep Safety Education Program

The Safe Sleep for Infants (SSI) project was developed to address the alarming rate of Riverside County infant deaths occurring in an unsafe sleeping condition.  Infant unsafe sleeping conditions can be caused by multiple factors and situations including; co-sharing a bed with an adult or siblings, sleeping in alternative bed setting other than cribs, unnecessary bedding and objects in the sleeping area spaces, bundling or swaddling the infant in too tight of clothing and placing the infant to sleep on their stomachs instead of their backs.  In most situations, the mechanism of these deaths is suffocation and/or asphyxiation.

The SSI Program’s primary goal is to create safer sleeping environments for all infants in Riverside County.  We are accomplishing this through several methods.  The most effective and widespread method is through education.  A SSI brochure was created which outlines the DO’s and DON’T’s of safe sleeping and guidelines to follow if you chose to co-sleep with your infant.  In addition, grant money was obtained to purchase a limited number of cribs and bedding.  Needy families were identified through Public Health Nursing and Maternal Child and Adolescent Health.  22 families received a complete crib set with one-on-one sleep safety education.