Medical Xpress October 18, 2025
When a child falls ill, caregivers often change how and where the infant sleeps—wanting to keep them close through the night. But new research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center suggests that some of these changes—although well-intentioned—contradict proven safe sleep practices for infants, and may do more harm than good.
In interviews with more than 100 caregivers of infants ages birth to 12 months presenting to the emergency department for infant illness, researchers found that unsafe sleep practices became more common during periods of illness—and often persisted even after the illness resolved.
These changes to sleep practices increase an infant’s risk of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), a broad term that includes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SUID, defined as the...
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