Survey of sleeping position after hospital discharge in healthy preterm infants.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the prevalence of nonprone (supine or side) versus prone sleeping position in healthy preterm infants.


METHODS
A questionnaire on sleeping position was mailed to mothers of 167 preterm infants discharged from the intermediate nursery at Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. The prevalence of nonprone sleeping at 1 month (term corrected age) and 3 months (2 months corrected age) after nursery discharge was analyzed by an unpaired t test.


RESULTS
Nonprone position sleeping occurred in 64% initially and dropped to 35% at 2 months corrected age.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall, nonprone sleeping was widespread in our healthy preterm infants after hospital discharge but may not persist. A majority of these infants were sleeping prone during a high-risk period for sudden infant death syndrome.
Adams
M M
MM
Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Calif.
Kugener
B
B
Mirmiran
M
M
Ariagno
R L
RL
D002657:Child Development; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007234:Infant, Premature; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D016683:Supine Position; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires