SIDS prevention

Pediatric Otolaryngologist Nina Shapiro, MD, shares advice for parents on the best way to help prevent and protect your baby from SIDS
How to Prevent SIDS
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SIDS prevention

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SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is the most common reason why infants die. The number one way to prevent SIDS, or at least minimize the risk of your child having SIDS, is to have them sleep on their back. When you are a young parent, you want to go back to sleep, your child should sleep on their back. That's how you remember your child needs to sleep on their back. Once people started having babies sleep on their back, SIDS decreased precipitously in this country. That is the number one way to reduced the risk of SIDS. Other ways you can reduce the risk of SIDS is to give them a safe sleeping environment. By safe I mean, a firm mattress in a crib or bassinet, with no blankets, no pillow, or toys. Kids cannot protect themselves. They cannot push a toy away if it is blocking their airway, so you put nothing in their crib or bassinet when they are sleeping. Those are the two best ways that you can reduce your child's risk of SIDS.

Pediatric Otolaryngologist Nina Shapiro, MD, shares advice for parents on the best way to help prevent and protect your baby from SIDS

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Nina Shapiro, MD

Pediatric Otolaryngologist

Dr. Nina Shapiro is the Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  As the first fellowship-trained pediatric otolaryngologist at the medical center since it was founded in 1955, her presence has put UCLA 'on the map' in her field.  

A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences, she also completed her residency training at Harvard.  She then went on to complete additional subspecialty training in pediatric otolaryngology at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, and The Children's Hospital of San Diego.

A native of New York, Shapiro has been honored with several prestigious awards, including the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology Award for Clinical Research, the UCLA Division of Head and Neck Surgery Faculty Teaching Award, and the American Academy of Pediatrics Young Investigators Award.  She has also been named "Super Doctor" by Los Angeles Magazine, and has been listed in "Who's Who in America".  

She has authored over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, has edited a pediatric otolaryngology textbook, and is the author of the parenting book Take a Deep Breath: Clear the Air for the Health of Your Child, releaseded in January 2012. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children, and enjoys spending time with them more than anything else in the world.

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