Do you honestly think that we “dear Americans” haven’t been trying to make changes? Glad your country is perfect.

Even being trained in CPR doesn’t mean you’ll respond properly in a crisis.

I’m not doubting the trend, but I don’t see how kids could be safe from SIDS or choking without leave being at least 3 years. From what I understand, Estonia has the longest paid leave period in the world, at 62 weeks. The argument is that this baby wouldn’t have died if parental leave was paid and lasted longer. It…

There could be a LOT of confounders there. Longer parental leave is highly correlated with higher socioeconomic status and better medical care. It is very possible that those are the variables that lead to lower infant mortality.

From what I see it was a locally known and recommended daycare. Also her lack of leave and finances probably restricted her choice. Speaking generally, it is a “thing” over here to be stuck with a “I hope it’s legal” daycare because you can’t afford anything more.

And that helps this family how? I do those things too, but you don’t hear me on here bragging about doing things unrelated to the death of this baby, nor do you see me policing other peoples’ comments for what I think is worthy of being posted or not. I’d rather spend that time doing something that’s actually…

I didn’t say anything about daycare licensing, because I don’t think that’s the issue. I think this article- especially the headline- imply that women who don’t stay home and watch their babies 24/7 are playing Russian Roulette with the life of their child. I believe that we should provide more paid parental leave,…

I wondered about that only because it seemed specious on the face of it to suggest that day care is a infant death factory despite the millions of children there. Good to see there’s some interest in it.

I see your point, but I still think there’s a big difference between “any place but home killed my baby” (as implied by the title of this Jezebel article) and “a negligent caregiver potentially killed my baby.” I think the distinction is important for all the people who put infants in care either by choice or by…

interesting. but the rates are so low to begin with that it’s hard to know if these numbers are meaningful. the study was promising, but was definitely not definitive enough to make any real claims. are there any newer studies?

God Bless America.

I disagree with your QED. I think the implication is that if he died of SIDS because of negligence, he’d still be alive if he had been in the care of adults who knew what they were doing- if that’s the mother, or properly trained daycare workers, or grandparents, or whatever.

THANK YOU for making this point. There is no guarantee that the child would have survived if a parent was the caregiver at the time. SIDS is a horrible and mysterious thing, and... they don’t even know what this baby died of!

Parental leave is such a huge and important issue, and I worry so much about this being turned…

I agree. I was really ambivalent about this article when it appeared in the Times and I’m just as ambivalent about its treatment here. While I have every sympathy for this family, this was a tragedy without a known cause. I remember when this happened as I read the article with my baby in daycare at the time, and it…

Yeah, that was the part that kind of got me, too, and I am not denying in the slightest that this is completely awful. I know of two families who have lost babies to SIDs: both had SAHMs who were in the other room while baby slept peacefully, they thought. I’m sure there’s a ton of blaming yourself and what-ifs when…

It sounds like the baby died of natural causes, which is so sad, but that means it would more than likely happened no matter where he was or who he was with, and that definitely does not make paid parental leave a matter of life and death. Not seeing the correlation between the title and the actual facts of the story.

I’m not quite seeing how better parental leave policies - which I support - would be the answer here. At some point, unless a parent decides to be a stay-at-home parent at least until the kid is school age, won’t a parent have to rely on daycare/babysitting/etc. where a child’s death is possible (if rare)?

This is so tragic, my heart hurts for this woman and her family. I can’t even imagine how awful it must be to go through something like that. I’m not sure how this means that parental leave is a life or death matter, though, as much as we need paid parental leave here in the U.S. and as terrible it is that her baby…

Yes, as horrible as this child’s death is( and I definitely agree we should have a standard of maternity and paternity leave here), a sudden unexpected death could've easily happen while she was watching her child .

Main point check. America needs to get with the rest of the developed world on paid family leave slash parental care. All those lobbying groups with ‘family’ in their name should get over gay people for just one brief moment and fight for actual family issues like this one.