The Early Childhood Education Office said checking on a sleeping baby every 10 minutes is not enough as too much can happen in that time. Photo /123RF
The Early Childhood Education Office said checking on a sleeping baby every 10 minutes is not enough as too much can happen in that time. Photo /123RF
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The death of a baby at an Auckland daycare centre has prompted new safety recommendations for sleeping infants in early childcare centres around the country.
The infant, a five-month-old boy, was found unresponsive about an hour after being put down for a nap at a daycarein South Auckland.
A Coroner’s report said staff checked on the baby boy at 10-minute intervals during the hour he was asleep, according to the regulations, but he was found unresponsive.
“His face was pale...[The staffer] picked up [the boy] and saw some vomit fall out of his mouth. She ran outside to the reception area for help,” Coroner Alexander Ho said in the report.
“Centre staff attempted CPR during which more vomit came out and some gurgling sounds were heard. Unfortunately, he could not be revived.”
40 to 60 infants die of SUDI (formerly known as SIDS and Cot Death) in New Zealand each year. Photo / Thinkstock
A post-mortem examination did not reveal a cause of death, and police were satisfied there was no evidence of foul play or suspicious circumstances.
When the baby was put down for a nap, he was placed in the cot on his back, with a loose baby-sized fleece blanket covering his chest and legs. The daycare’s practice was to not tuck the blanket in, enabling the child to move around.
The incident happened in March, 2023 but the case has only come to light now because the Office of Early Childhood Education - the leading authority and public adviser on early childhood education - discovered that changes made to the Ministry of Education’s website were the result of a child’s death in an ECE facility.
Chief adviser at the Office of Early Childhood Education Dr Sarah Alexander said they were concerned the death had flown under the radar for almost two years
She told the Herald its circumstances should have been made known to ECE providers and the sector to help raise awareness of safe sleep practices.
Leader of Operations and Integration for the Ministry of Education, Sean Teddy, said it is not the ministry’s role to publicly announce serious incidents that occur in early learning services.
“These matters are handled with care and sensitivity by the appropriate authorities, including the Coroner,” he said.
“Following the Coroner’s findings, we updated our sleep guidance in June, 2024, to reflect the latest advice.”
Teddy said the update appeared in the ministry’s Early Learning Bulletin issue that same month. The advice included recommendations that adults check sleeping babies every five to 10 minutes, and that ECE centres keep a record of those checks.
Calls for staff to watch sleeping children at all times
According to Dr Sarah Alexander, the regulations don’t go far enough.
“[The child’s] death has shown the rules and guidelines we have in place are failing to keep children safe. We need to tighten up regulations” she said.
She said she had been advocating for many years for the rules around sleep in ECE centres to be changed so a teacher must stay in the same room as a sleeping child for the duration of their sleep.
An infant's death is classified as sudden unexpected death in infancy when no specific cause of death is found. Photo / File
“I can’t help but wonder if a teacher had been in the same room as [the baby boy] that day, they might have noticed something was wrong and been able to save him.
“His death shows that checking on a sleeping baby every 10 minutes is not enough. A lot can happen in 10 minutes - in this case, a baby went from being fine, to dying.”
The Office of Early Childhood Education is now calling for a previous regulation in place until 2008 to be reintroduced.
“From 1990 to 2008, ECE services were required under regulation to ensure that all children who were resting or sleeping were in sight of a staff member at all times.”
Coroner Ho did not make any official recommendations in his report.
However, he made two points regarding loose bedding and safe sleep practices.
At the time of the infant’s death, the daycare centre group he attended did not have a formal policy on the use of blankets or linens; other than that they were to be arranged away from the child’s face.
That omission in their policies was “surprising,” the Coroner said.
After the death, the daycare group committed to updating its sleep and rest policy to require its centres to either not use loose bedding in cots or to place the baby in the cot with their feet at the bottom end - to minimise the risk of bedding moving up over the child’s face during sleep.
The Ministry of Education’s website now includes a link to information about SUDI and a statement: “As well as being warm, children should be safe while they sleep.”
