Anchorage is seeing a spike in infant deaths this year, prompting health care professionals to issue cautions about co-sleeping.
So far this year, Anchorage police have reported almost double the amount of deaths compared to all of 2024.
“Last year, they saw four, and this year already, just until this month, we've seen seven already,” said Leslie Bagley, an advanced practice nurse with Providence Alaska Medical Center.
While Anchorage police couldn’t comment on specific causes of death among the infants, a department spokesperson said most of the deaths this year and last year were caused by co-sleeping. Bagley said best practices from the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics are to have infants sleep on their own.
“We want them to be on a separate surface,” Bagley said. “So that's not only not sleeping with adults, but it's also not sleeping with children, even a twin, or pets.”
Bagley said other best practices include getting a crib that meets safety standards, keeping infants away from secondhand smoke and placing them on their back to sleep.
“We don't even want to put them on their sides, because they can inadvertently, kind of roll into that tummy position and put them at risk,” Bagley said. “And when an infant gets old enough that they're rolling over by themselves, it's okay if they stay in the same position.”
Bagley recommended parents consult the Consumer Product Safety Commission for the best information on which cribs are safest and if any have been recalled. She said additional information on how to prevent sudden infant death syndrome can be found on the CDC’s website.
