ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Below
About 30 percent fewer American babies died of sudden infant death syndrome as the result of a campaign to teach care givers to put infants to sleep on their backs instead of on their stomachs, a federal official said today.
Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said that since a national ``Back to Sleep'' education campaign began in 1994, the percentage of babies sleeping on their stomach has been cut from 70 percent to less than 30 percent.
Deaths from sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, said Alexander, have fallen by 30 percent during that same period.
``This represents a saving of over 1,500 infant lives a year,'' Alexander said in a statement.
Before the ``Back to Sleep'' campaign started, there were 5,000 to 6,000 American SIDS deaths annually among babies age one month to one year.
Alexander said an intensified effort to educate care givers could reduce SIDS even more by assuring that at least 90 percent of all infants are placed to sleep on their backs or sides, not their stomachs.
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