Sudden infant death. In what position do infants sleep?

The AEP (Spanish Academy of Pediatrics) recommends since 1996 that children sleep in the supine position to prevent sudden infant death (SIDS). We do not know the incidence that these recommendations have had on the population and in what posture newborn children sleep. Even though in Hospitals and Health care centers they recommend the supine posture, this is not always done systematically and our impression is that recommendations vary and are not always included in the Well Child Program. We wanted to know in what posture children attended by two health care centers sleep (Fronteras I and Fronteras II): Supine, prone, lateral or variable .We asked also if there were other risk factors like parent smoking and if they had received any counseling on stopping smoking. We found that the majority of mothers had received information on the posture for sleeping. That the majority of newborn children slept in lateral decubitus. The counseling on what posture to sleep was made by the nurse of the Hospital, Health Center, or matron. Even though smoking was discouraged many mothers smoke and if they don?t smoke fathers smoke. We review some of the basic topics on sudden infant death syndrome. We suggest that it is possible that the relative incidence of SIDS will grow because of the increasing number of newborn children of other races that have higher risk of SIDS and the growing number of parents with limited resources who have a higher risk of SIDS also. We want to insist that the ideal sleeping posture to prevent SIDS is decubitus supinus and that it will be necessary to target some greater risk groups to reduce even more the incidence of SIDS.