Infant positioning: A brief review

Abstract

The American Academy of Pediatrics (2016a) has made several recommendations regarding the safe positioning of infants by caregivers, including placing infants in a supine position for sleep and in prone for supervised periods of tummy time. However, caregivers may have difficulty adhering with these recommendations. A small, but growing, number of behavior analytic studies have examined these infant safety recommendations and strategies for increasing adherence. This review describes behavior analytic research on infant positioning and provides suggestions for future research.

Safe to sleep: Community‐based caregiver training

“…Yet, the latest iteration of recommendations from the AAP includes a total of 19 practices (AAP, 2016b), many of which include addressing seemingly modifiable risk factors for SIDS and other SUIDs. Along these lines, behavior analysts have been active in addressing the recommendation for caregivers to place their awake infants in the prone position during supervised periods of time (e.g., Mendres‐Smith et al, 2020; Morea & Jessel, 2020; Vladescu et al, 2020). Future researchers should attempt to address these and a broader range of recommended practices.…”

Leveraging applied behavior analysis research and practice in the service of public health

“…Two such papers address infant safety and healthy development. Vladescu et al (2020) reviewed behavioral research on safe infant positioning, which is the primary way to prevent the public-health problem of sudden infant death. Shea et al (2020) evaluated a self-paced online intervention to teach caregivers to respond contingently to infant vocalizations, a practice included in what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls responsive caregiving.…”

A comparison of parental attention and preferred items during tummy time: A consecutive controlled case series evaluation

“…It is also possible that the pediatricians were providing an initially conservative suggestion to reduce initial fatigue, which could have been influenced by the young age of the infants. It seems many participants in tummy time research are likely to be 3 months of age or older (see Vladescu et al, 2020), whereas the median age of our participants was 2 months. This leaves the prospect that the overall success of the tummy time procedures could have been affected by the brief session duration and developmental level of the participants.…”

“…Although behavior‐analytic research has had promising outcomes in removing aversive aspects of tummy time for caregivers and for promoting healthy motor skills, as evidenced by the studies mentioned above, the literature is somewhat limited by the small sample size and reliance on single‐case experimental designs (see Vladescu et al, 2020, for a review). Clinicians tend to use single‐case experimental designs because they ensure that every participant receives the treatment and allow for a flexible (i.e., easily modifiable while maintaining interpretations of functional control) research‐based evaluation of treatments that guide practice (Gast & Ledford, 2014).…”