Nurses explain the safest way to let babies sleep

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Forget what your mother told you about putting a baby to bed. Today's moms are being taught the safest way for their little ones to sleep.

September is Infant Sleep Safe Month and one Fresno Medical Center is teaching families how babies rest best. Natalie Mireles and Julian of Madera are in awe of their baby boy Malakai.

Natalie has always been around babies, helping out in her Mother's Day Care Center, but the 25-year-old new mom says having her own child is a totally new experience.

"I'm learning too," she said. "It's different when it's yours."

Part of what she and Julian are learning at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center is how not to put their baby to bed.

"We know that also through all the research, that it shows that infants who used to lay on their tummies is not the best way, because they can't raise their heads, or they can't turn their heads quite yet so sleeping on their back prevents that from occurring," Susie Alday at Kaiser said. "Plus babies need to have their arms free too. They need to push away any objects that are close to their face."

Kaiser nurses visit each family to show them how to safely put a baby to bed on their backs in a crib with only a mattress and a fitted sheet to reduce the chances of sides and accidental suffocation.

Every baby born at Kaiser goes home with an infant gown that says "back is best" and the family learns how to bundle up their newborn securely but safely.

Gone are the days of swaddling a baby like a burrito.

"What we don't want to do is we don't want to take his hands, put them down at his sides and wrap him so tight he can't use his hands to protect himself, so we're going to keep his hands out," nurse Kathy Cantu said.

Then it's dad Julian's turn to practice and he gets it just right. Now this family is ready to go home knowing the safe way to put a baby to bed until he wakes up.