SNOO, World's Safest Infant Bed, Announces SIDS Prevention Breakthrough

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Nov 01, 2019, 09:00 ET

Babies Have Slept 50+ Million Hours in SNOOs With No Reported Deaths

SNOO is Only Bed to Meet American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Advice, "Babies Should Only Sleep on Back, First 6 Months"

NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The tragedy of infant sleep death affects 3,600 American families every year. This month, the Happiest Baby Inc. reached a stunning breakthrough in the fight against this insidious killer: babies have slept over 50,000,000 hours in SNOO Smart Sleepers without a single reported death. By comparison, 20–30 deaths would have been expected in a similar population.

Created by renowned pediatrician Dr. Harvey Karp, co-founder of Happiest Baby Inc., SNOO is the world's most advanced bed. With continuous womb-like rocking and shushing, SNOO adds 1–2 hours to a baby's—and parents'—nightly sleep. It automatically responds to crying with unique motion and sound. The response gently increases to find the perfect level to soothe the baby, often in 1-minute or less. This landmark innovation has been showcased in five of the world's leading museums. SNOO has won 20 top honors for breakthrough design and function, including the National Sleep Foundation's Innovation of the Year. That's more major awards than any other baby product in history.

Most importantly, SNOO is a huge leap forward in infant safety. Its unique sleep sack guarantees that babies stay safely swaddled and securely on the back during sleep for the first six months. That makes SNOO the only bed to meet the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) back sleeping recommendation.

During the early 1990s, physicians began to notice that stomach sleeping tripled the risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, or SUID. SUID is an umbrella term for all infant sleep deaths— including suffocation and unexplained deaths— like the mysterious Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS.

In 1994, the AAP launched the Back to Sleep campaign to stop the common practice of stomach sleeping. Within five years, doctors celebrated a 50 percent drop in SIDS; however, since 1999, our progress in reducing these deaths has flat-lined. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported that, despite our best efforts, 3,600 US babies have fallen victim to SUID every single year for the past two decades. Today, 48 percent of SUID cases occur when the baby is placed face down or rolls prone.

Why are we failing to save more infants?

Before launching public health campaigns, doctors must prove two key things: safety and efficacy. The shocking truth is, although it is safer, Back to Sleep actually worsens infant sleep efficacy. This has tempted more and more exhausted parents to disregard the AAP's safe sleep advice.

A recent study in Pediatrics, the official journal of the AAP, found that up to 58 percent of new parents ignore AAP safe sleep warnings; and 22 percent intentionally place their baby prone to sleep.

"Back sleeping is the safest, but many babies fight sleeping on the back. Loving parents can get so tired that they accidentally forget or are tempted to do things that they know are unsafe," explains Dr. Karp.

When babies don't sleep well, their parents often experience sleep deprivation. Exhaustion is not just a nuisance; it's also a top trigger of marital stress, postpartum depression/anxiety, breastfeeding failure, car accidents, and unsafe sleep practices that lead to thousands of deaths.

Indeed, millions of exhausted parents fall asleep with the baby next to them. Bed-sharing is unsafe because exhaustion causes parents to experience a mental impairment similar to being drunk. No wonder up to 73 percent of SUID deaths occur in a parent's bed.

Fortunately, infant sleep can be improved with three womb sensations: swaddling (or snug holding), rhythmic motion, and white noise. Each of these, however, presents a risk: swaddling becomes less safe after 2-3 months, when babies can roll to the stomach; dozens of babies have died in moving swings and rockers when they shifted to a position that blocked their breathing; and sound may damage a baby's ears if played too loudly.

"Most parents discover that rocking in a glider or driving in the car boosts their baby's sleep. But, to boost it 1-2 hours would require these tired parents to rock or drive…all night long."

Like a virtual 24/7 extra pair of hands, SNOO safely provides these womb-like rhythms—for all naps and nights— allowing busy parents to shower, fix a meal, care for their other kids, or get a bit more sleep.

In the world's largest prospective sleep study, Happiest Baby analyzed 7,157 babies who slept in SNOO for the first 6 months of life (available upon request). The report revealed that SNOO increases sleep 1–2 hours per night. On average, these babies woke up one time less per night (P<0.0005).

By reducing bed-sharing and preventing stomach sleeping, SNOO may be able to dramatically reduce infant death. Happiest Baby surveyed 2,500 SNOO users and found these families were much less likely to bed-share than non-SNOO users (17 percent vs 25–60 percent). Over the past three years, tens of thousands of babies have slept 50,000,000+ hours in SNOOs—without a single death.

Dr. Karp created SNOO in collaboration with Yves Behar, acclaimed designer and founder of fuseproject, and Dr. Deb Roy, Director of the Social Learning Machines program at MIT's Media Lab.

Happiest Baby plans to use this landmark bed to help all new parents and babies across America. In 2018, the company began renting SNOOs to top US corporations as an employee benefit. Over 50 companies—Activision Blizzard, Snap, Hulu, Weight Watchers, Under Armour, and more—use SNOO to support new parents and strengthen retention, loyalty and productivity.

Rahab Hammad, Benefits Manager at Snap, shared, "SNOO is by far the best maternity benefit we've ever offered. The feedback is phenomenal!"

In 2019, the company expanded its rental initiative to families across America. Now, parents in any community can enjoy more rest, peace of mind, and round-the-clock help for about the cost of a cup of coffee per day.

For more information, go to https://www.happiestbaby.com.

ABOUT HAPPIEST BABY

Happiest Baby is a mission-driven, venture-backed company dedicated to helping parents raise healthy, happy children. The company develops science-based products and content to solve everyday parenting challenges and enhance child well-being. Based in Los Angeles, Happiest Baby Inc. was started in 2001 by Dr. Harvey Karp with his wife and co-founder, Nina Montée Karp.

The company makes SNOO and Sleepea–the only doctor-designed, award-winning, "5-second" swaddle. Dr. Karp's celebrated books/videos, The Happiest Baby on the Block, The Happiest Toddler on the Block and The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Birth to 5 have helped millions of parents and are translated into over twenty languages.

Contact [email protected]

SOURCE Happiest Baby, Inc.