How and where you put your baby to sleep can dramatically affect his/her risk of suffocation. In Louisiana, accidental suffocation is the leading cause of all injury-related deaths of infants 1 month to 12 months of age. The SIDS Risk Reduction & Safe Sleep Program has launched a new campaign urging parents to “Give Your Baby Space” by highlighting the dangers of unsafe sleep practices and promoting infant-safe sleep environments in an effort to reduce rates of suffocation. The safest place for a baby to sleep is alone in his/her own crib with no loose bedding, blankets, crib bumpers, or stuffed animals. Visit www.GiveYourBabySpace.com for more information.

Car seats are valuable tools to protect children on the road, but they need to be age appropriate and correctly installed to be effective. To help parents make road travel safe, pediatricians from Loyola University Health System in Chicago offer these rules for using a car seat: car seats for infants under 20 pounds and 1 year of age should always be rear facing. A front facing car seat shouldthen be used until children are at least 4 years old or weigh more than 40 pounds. Car seats should never be in the front seat, and it is always important to carfully read your car seat’s specific installation instructions. It is also important to remember that parents can set a good example and keep themselves safe by always wearing a seat belt. Read more.

A new study of over 4,000 infants in the Netherlands has found that exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months versus 4 months significantly reduces a baby’s risk of developing respiratory and stomach infections. This finding supports the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation that mothers should exclusively breastfeed their children for the first 6 months of life. Read more about the study.