Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, is the unexpected death of a child less than a year old that cannot be explained after a thorough investigation. In many instances of SIDS, a child is thought to be sleeping, but when checked is found dead. SIDS accounts for nearly 4,000 infant deaths every year in the United States alone and is the third leading cause of death in infants aged 1 to 12 months. This October, we urge families, child care providers and other caregivers to spend some time learning about safe sleep practices and ways to reduce the risk of SIDS.

Visit cdc.gov for more information on SIDS and Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed. To find SIDS awareness materials and learn more about the Safe to Sleep campaign, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, click here.

Child care providers can earn continuing education units in safe sleep training to use toward their annual training requirements by enrolling in the Child Care Aware Training Academy. For archived webinars on safe sleep and proper crib regulations, visit the American Academy of Pediatrics' Healthy Child Care America page.