A doctor has put out a warning to parents
who let their baby sleep on their chest after
tragically losing his own son.
Dr Sam Hanke has taken up the cause after
noticing a trend of famous dads posting
images of themselves with their infant
children perched soundly asleep on their
chest.
Despite being a cute image, Dr Hanke knows
only too well how dangerous it can be.
In 2010 he was lying on the sofa while his
baby son Charlie slept on his chest. A few
minutes later Dr Hanke himself fell asleep,
only to wake up to every parent’s worst
nightmare.
‘A couple hours later I woke up and Charlie
was gone,’ he told Fatherly.com.
Charlie’s death from Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome (SIDS) has spurred Dr Hanke and
his wife to launch Charlie’s Kids, a
foundation which aims to educate parents
on the safest way to let their baby sleep.
The foundation points out that many babies
die every year due to sleeping with their
parents – usually because the baby falls off
the parent’s chest or because the sleeping
adult rolls over and suffocates the baby.
Aside from celebrities hoping for a good
Instagram picture, many mothers comment
that at times the only way to get a baby to
sleep is by holding him or her to your chest.
However Charlie’s Kids urges parents to
always put babies to sleep in crib, whether
they are napping or going to bed, and tells
parents not to ‘sleep with your baby on a
shared sleep service’.
