Comment by dd36 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dd36 | Hacker News Reader

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Autism exploded when Back to Sleep exploded for babies. For a good chunk of babies (and their parents), forced back sleeping is hugely disruptive to sleep. So much so that the only way anyone gets rest is belly sleep on top of a parent. Sleep is important to brain development. Until proven otherwise, my hypothesis is we’re accidentally causing the spike in autism with forced back sleeping. There are studies that indirectly support this but I’m not sure of any direct studies.

What got me on this path was my own son. From the time he was only a few weeks, he wouldn’t sleep for more than a few hours on his back but on his belly would sleep the whole night. The nurses in the NICU put all the babies on their tummies to get them to sleep. We threw out the doctor’s advice and tummy slept him with good air circulation and were far better off than many friends who thought their baby would die if tummy slept. Everyone before 1994 was tummy slept. What convinced me to try it was watching the nurses, reading a study on air circulation and SIDS, and that he slept great on top of me tummy down.

We just had our third and this comment has tickled my interest. Do you have an example of any studies that indirectly support this?

I agree that good sleep is more critical than people realize.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/...

So in this study, a fan reduced SIDS as much as forced back sleeping. Again, the point is they don’t know why backsleeping reduces SIDS. One theory is it puts the baby’s face higher up. The fan seems to support this.

I’d be curious to interview parents of kids with autism and see how militant they were about back sleep and if their kid slept well. Some kids seeming don’t mind backsleeping but others hate it. And you can tell by simply letting them tummy sleep for a night or two and seeing if they sleep longer.

If this hypothesis does pan out, it’s not unlike doctors advice to avoid peanuts leading to a huge increase in peanut allergies. Only for them to later say, whoops.

great info

how do you make it work “on top of the parent”? e.g. how can the parent ensure not to roll over and suffocate the child?

Do not co-sleep with an infant. Ever.

Babies sleep a lot more than adults, so they can sleep on a parent/guardian who is awake.

If you look at the studies about cosleeping and death, it’s almost always a non-parent.

Just you’re sitting there reading, on your phone, TV, whatever and baby is on top of you napping.

SIDS was recently found to be lack of some enzyme, not related to tummy down sleeping. [1] So you're probably right that babies should sleep however they do naturally which I've noticed with my kids was with legs tucked and belly down.

[1] https://www.premierhealth.com/your-health/articles/healthnow...

That’s not what your article or the actual researchers say. You’ve extrapolated from “possible link that needs verification” to “cause” which is potentially incredibly dangerous for babies.

> While scientists continue their research, Dr. Belcastro recommends that you and caregivers for your baby faithfully follow safe sleep guidelines to minimize the risk of SIDS. These precautions are especially important from ages one to six months, when babies cannot roll themselves over:

> Place your baby on his back to sleep – not on his side or stomach.

Doctors also say to not co-sleep, but that's the norm in Japan and they have a lower SIDS rate than the US.

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