To reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)--the sudden, inexplicable death of an infant under 1 year of age--always place your baby to sleep on her back (unless your pediatrician advises otherwise) at naptime and nighttime in a crib that meets all safety standards and has a firm, tight-fitting mattress. Children who sleep on their stomachs have the highest likelihood of SIDS. In fact, since the beginning of the "Back to Sleep" campaign in 1992, which recommended that babies sleep on their backs with no soft bedding in the sleep area, SIDS rates have dropped by more than 50 percent. Some studies suggest that breast-feeding also appears to decrease the risk of SIDS. Here are other ways to keep your baby safe during a snooze:

• Don't dress your baby too warmly. Overheating may be a contributor to SIDS. Keep the temperature in your baby's room between 68 and 72°F. Your baby shouldn't feel hot to the touch.
  
  
• Consider using a pacifier at naptime and bedtime. If your baby is breast-fed, wait to introduce a pacifier until 1 month of age, after breast-feeding is firmly established. But if your baby doesn't want a pacifier, don't force him to take it. Begin weaning your baby off the pacifier after his first birthday.
  
  
• Replace loose crib blankets with a wearable sleep sack.
  
  
• Ban smoking around your baby and don't smoke while you're pregnant. Exposure to cigarette smoke in the womb and after your baby is born increases the risk of SIDS.
  
  
• Don't put your baby to sleep on a waterbed, sofa, sheepskin, quilt, soft mattress, pillow, or bean bag chair. The fluffy bedding materials and soft surfaces can allow a dangerous buildup of carbon dioxide from the baby's own breathing. Rebreathing exhaled carbon dioxide has been identified as a potential cause of SIDS.
  
  
• Remove all soft, fluffy, or loose bedding and other items from your baby's crib, including decorative pillows and stuffed animals.
  
  
• Don't let your baby share your bed. In addition to the risk that you might roll onto your baby, adult beds pose other hazards. Your baby could get trapped between the bed and a wall, headboard, bed frame, or other object. Accidental suffocation in soft bedding is another danger, or the baby could fall off the bed. If you breast-feed your baby in bed, be sure to return her to the crib afterward.
  
  
• Position the crib away from windows, window blinds, wall hangings, and draperies. Children can strangle on the cords.
  
  
• Don't use an electric blanket, heating pad, or even a warm water bottle to heat your baby's crib. An infant's skin is highly heat-sensitive and can be burned by temperatures comfortable to an adult.
  
  
• Buy a new crib; a safe crib doesn't have to be expensive.
  
  
• Don't use a crib with loose, broken, or missing slats, spindles or finials, or hardware, cut-out designs in the headboard or footboard, cracked or peeling paint, splinters or rough edges. And don't try to repair the crib yourself, or jimmy-rig it with string or shoe laces.
  
  
• Educate your parents and other caregivers who may be with your baby at naptime or nighttime about these safe sleeping tips.