Put your baby "back" to sleep
Putting your baby on her back to sleep is still the most important way to reduce SIDS risk. One possible explanation for why back sleeping lowers the risk is that a baby who sleeps on her stomach is more likely to "rebreathe" the oxygen-depleted air that she just exhaled. Since 1992, when the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other health organizations recommended that doctors promote back sleeping, the number of SIDS deaths has been cut by more than half. At the time, 70 percent of U.S. infants were stomach sleepers; more than ten years later, that number has plummeted to 14 percent. The sole downside associated with back sleeping is flattening of the head, but doctors say that adequate "tummy time" (while the baby's awake and supervised) can help prevent this.

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