By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
In discussing the June 30 Community Roundtable on risk factors for infants, Rowan Board of Social Services members asked Director Sandra Wilkes and staff members at Tuesday night’s meeting to keep reminding parents of the dangers of co-sleeping with infants.
“I want to make sure we keep this in the public eye,” said Carl Ford, who represents Rowan County commissioners on the board. “People are going to keep having babies. I mean, a death happened the day before we had this.”
He was referring to the June 28 death of a 2-week-old Spencer infant that investigators say may have been caused by his mother rolling over on him. Tonya Leanne Hennis, 33, of 210 S. Yadkin Ave. called the Rowan County 911 Center around 10:30 that morning when she found her baby not breathing. He was in bed with her at the time.
Sgt. Eric Ennis of the Spencer Police Department said Hennis administered CPR, but neither she nor the Rowan Emergency Medical Service personnel responding to the scene was able to revive the baby.
Investigators are waiting to hear from the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office on the cause of death.
“It’s still going on,” Ford said of parents and siblings co-sleeping with infants. “Let’s get the information out to the public and keep it there.”
Social Services officials selected risk factors for infants ó including co-sleeping with parents and siblings ó as the topic for this year’s annual community roundtable after a December 2008 state child fatality review ruled that co-sleeping was a factor in the May 2, 2008, death of 8-month-old Emmanuel Campusano Jr. of Salisbury.
Co-sleeping has also been cited as a factor in other child fatalities reviewed across the state.
Wilkes said the department had received positive comments from the people who attended the roundtable. The presentation by Dr. Sara Sinal of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is available for public viewing on the Rowan County Department of Social Services Web site, and Wilkes said staff are required to see it as part of their training.
Sinal said at the roundtable that a 2007 study of infant deaths found co-sleeping was present in 81 percent of the cases. While many experts claim co-sleeping can provide valuable psychological benefits, she said evidence shows that infants 6 months old or younger are at a greater risk of suffocation when they share a parent’s bed.
Sinal also shared information about Shaken Baby Syndrome, a type of inflicted traumatic brain injury that happens when a baby is violently shaken, and the Period of Purple Crying, which explains why it is normal for some babies to cry and offers parents advice on how to cope with non-stop infant crying.She is a professor of pediatrics and family and community medicine and the medical director of the Children’s Medical Evaluation Team at Brenner Children’s20Hospital. Wilkes said Child Protective Services staff review safe sleeping/crib safety tips for infants with parents served by the division and require them to sign a paper stating that they have received a written copy.
Social Services staff have also begun collecting cribs and monetary donations to buy cribs to give to parents who cannot afford them.
As part of the training of foster parents, Wilkes said they are informed that they are not allowed to co-sleep with infant foster children or to allow any siblings to co-sleep with them. Ruth Chaparro Kennerly, at her first meeting as a board member asked if the safe sleeping/crib safety tips are available in Spanish for parents who cannot read English. Wilkes said the department’s interpretor is working on translating them now.
Lillian Morgan, elected earlier in the meeting as the new board chairman, said she thought Ford made a good point in asking staff to keep talking to parents about the dangers of co-sleeping. “This is something we want to keep in the forefront.”
It’s also important to share the dangers of co-sleeping with other agencies dealing with parents of young children, Morgan said.