Unsafe Sleep Environment

Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) is a tragic event often resulting from unsafe sleep environments. SUID includes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed (ASSB) and other sleep-related deaths that frequently occur without warning. Many of these cases are linked to factors such as infants sleeping on soft surfaces, sharing a bed with adults, or being surrounded by loose bedding, pillows or stuffed toys. Ensuring a safe sleep environment is critical, which means placing babies on their backs to sleep, using a firm mattress with a fitted sheet and keeping the crib free of any objects that could pose a suffocation risk.¹ 

Community insights

Nearly 2 in 5 infants (about 10,800) in the eight-county primary service area—Collin, Denton, Grayson, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant and Wise counties do not always sleep alone in their own crib or bed, and 1 in 4 (about 6,500) infants are not always placed on their back to sleep.²  According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, between fiscal year 2021 and 2023, 506 infant deaths occurred, in the state of Texas, where bed sharing was a factor.³

Unsafe sleep prevention program

References

¹Moon RY, Carlin RF, Hand I, Task Force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Sleep-related infant deaths: updated 2022 recommendations for reducing infant deaths in the sleep environment. Pediatrics. 2022;150(1):e2022057990. doi:10.1542/peds.2022-057990

²Community Health Needs Assessment Report. (2024). Cook Children’s Health Care System. Fort Worth, Texas; or Cook Children’s CHNA 2024 at www.cookchildrens.org/chna (accessed September 2025).

³Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Room sharing and safe sleep for babies. Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI). Accessed August 2024. https://www.dfps.texas.gov/Prevention_and_Early_Intervention/