Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 19, 2026
An Educational Video Demonstration of How to Prone a Critically Ill Intubated Patient
Published on: November 30, 2022
Review of hazards associated with children placed in adult beds
S Nakamura1, M Wind, M A Danello
1US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Bethesda, MD 20814-4408, USA. snakamura@cpsc.gov
Insights
Adult bed sharing poses fatal risks for infants. Overlying and entrapment in adult beds caused 515 deaths in children under 2, highlighting preventable sleep environment dangers.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Safety
- Consumer Product Safety
- Public Health
Background:
- Adult beds present unrecognized hazards for infant sleep.
- Risks include overlying, wedging, and strangulation.
- These dangers are often unknown to caregivers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and assess dangers of infant sleep in adult beds.
- To analyze risks of overlying, wedging, and strangulation.
- To relate hazards to children's sleeping environments.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of US Consumer Product Safety Commission data.
- Reviewed deaths of children under 2 years old in adult beds, daybeds, and waterbeds.
- Included incident data from January 1990 to December 1997.
Main Results:
- 515 deaths of children under 2 in adult beds over 8 years.
- 121 deaths from overlying by bed-sharing individuals.
- 394 deaths from entrapment within bed structures, often causing suffocation/strangulation.
Conclusions:
- Infant sleep in adult beds carries significant, often unrecognized, fatal risks.
- Hazards include overlying, entrapment (wedging, head entrapment), and suffocation (waterbeds).
- Caregivers must be informed about these avoidable sleep environment dangers.
Objectives:
To identify and assess dangers associated with placing children younger than 2 years to sleep in adult beds. This article focuses on overlying, wedging, and strangulation hazards and the relationship of these hazards to children's sleeping environments.
Design:
A retrospective review and analysis of data collected by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission on deaths of children younger than 2 years in standard adult beds, daybeds, and waterbeds. The review included incident data from January 1990 through December 1997.
Results:
The 8-year records showed a total of 515 deaths of children younger than 2 years who were placed to sleep on adult beds. Of these deaths, 121 were reported to be due to overlying of the child by a parent, other adult, or sibling sleeping in bed with the child and 394 were due to entrapment in the bed structure. Most of these deaths seem to have resulted from suffocation or strangulation caused by entrapment of the child's head in various structures of the bed.
Conclusions:
Placing children younger than 2 years to sleep in adult beds exposes them to potentially fatal hazards that are generally not recognized by the parent or caregiver. These hazards include overlying by a parent, sibling, or other adult sharing the bed; entrapment or wedging of the child between the mattress and another object; head entrapment in bed railings; and suffocation on waterbeds. Parents and caregivers should be alerted to these avoidable hazards.
Related Concept Videos
01:18Nightmares and Night Terrors
Nightmares often...
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-I
Daycare centers
They provide several functions. Some facilities care for healthy newborns and children whose parents work, while others are medically focused and care for...
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-II
Rural health centers are specialized care facilities in remote locations with very few medical personnel. The primary care providers who run the centers are mostly Registered Nurse Practitioners. Here, emergency treatment is provided to critically ill or injured patients before they are transferred to the closest hospital. Fortunately, due to advancement in technology, many rural healthcare facilities and professionals have easy access to diagnostic and treatment...
01:24Drug Toxicity: Risk factors
01:22Healthcare Associated Infections II: Preventive Measures
The best practices for preventing healthcare-associated infections include hand hygiene, patient risk...