Our Book

Sleep Baby Safe and Snug

Charlie’s Kids Foundation was established in 2011 with the mission to advocate safe sleep to prevent infant death. Our organization’s primary outreach is through the bulk distribution of our children’s board book Sleep Baby Safe and Snug.

This book, written by pediatrician Dr. John Hutton and illustrated by Leah Busch, provides timely and repetitive safe sleep messaging in an approachable and easy to read book. It was specifically developed to target all levels of education, language and literacy abilities. The book strictly aligns with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) evidence-based safe sleep recommendations initially released in 2011.

The results from this approach have been staggering. Since the book was introduced in the spring of 2013, Charlie’s Kids has distributed more than 4 million copies of Sleep Baby Safe and Snug across the United States and internationally. The book is available in both English and Spanish and has been updated to reflect the most current AAP 2016 recommendations.

Countless infant care providers and families have provided supportive comments of how this book has increased their knowledge and impacted infant sleep practices. While these stories have been invaluable in supporting our work, our organization has sought to more rigorously evaluate the impact of our book.  The references below summarize the objective results from our book distributions in select populations.

Sleep Baby Safe and Snug Evidence Summary Statement

  1. Randomized Trial in a High-Risk Population
    • Hutton, J. S., Gupta, R., Gruber, R., Berndsen, J., DeWitt, T., Ollberding, N. & Ammerman, R. T. (2017).
    • A Randomized Trial of a Children’s Book Versus Brochures for Safe Sleep Knowledge and Adherence in a High-Risk Population. Academic Pediatrics.
    • Conclusion: Parents are twice as likely to use a crib and not bed-share when reading Sleep Baby Safe and Snug is used for education compared to brochure. (Observed)
  2. Statewide Hospital Program-Tennessee
    • Heitmann, R., Nilles, E. K., Jeans, A., Moreland, J., Clarke, C., McDonald, M. F., & Warren, M. D. (2017).
    • Improving safe sleep modeling in the hospital through policy implementation. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 21(11), 1995-2000.
    • Overview and Conclusions:
      • Sleep Baby Safe and Snug has been distributed to every baby born in a Tennessee hospital since 2014.
      • Statewide implementation of a hospital intervention that uses Sleep Baby Safe and Snug as an incentive was associated with a significant 50% reduction in infants found in unsafe sleep situations in the delivery hospital.
      • Following the first year this program was implemented in 2013, sleep-related infant deaths Tennessee decreased 23.8% (2012 to 2014).
  3. Statewide Hospital Initiative- Georgia
    • Walcott, R. L., Ward, T. S., Ingels, J. B., Llewellyn, N. A., Miller, T. J., & Corso, P. S. (2017).
    • A Statewide Hospital-Based Safe Infant Sleep Initiative: Measurement of Parental Knowledge and Behavior. Journal of Community Health, 1-9.
    • Overview and Conclusions:
      • Sleep Baby Safe and Snug was distributed as a part of the Georgia Safe to Sleep Hospital Initiative starting in 2016. The book was distributed along with other safe sleep materials (onesies, bassinets, etc.). Feedback from hospitals regarding the usefulness of the book was positive.
      • On direct parent survey (n=420), 91% found the information helpful, and 83% shared the safe sleep recommendations with others.
      • Also, receiving information in the hospital was strongly correlated with knowledge and behaviors regarding safe sleep location.
  4. Statewide Hospital Initiative- Ohio
    • Overview and Conclusions:
      • Sleep Baby Safe and Snug was distributed as part of the Good4Baby program through the Ohio Department of Health and Ohio Hospital Association in 2014.
      • Analysis of state infant mortality data demonstrated a 31% decrease in sleep-related deaths in 2014 compared to 2013.
      • In 2015, this program was not continued due to funding. Notably, a reduction was not sustained in 2015 when the book was no longer distributed.

Pricing Information

PLEASE NOTE:
  • Quantities of Sleep Baby Safe and Snug must be purchased by the case (one case = 60 books). 
  • Book prices shown do not include shipping charges. Shipping (Prepaid & Add) via LTL carrier to be
    determined at time of order. 
  • Orders of more than 1,020 may be split across the two language versions to obtain discount pricing.

Can’t afford books for your organization?

We have a Book Grant Program that opens twice a year in February and in August. Each round we gift over 10,000 books to qualified organizations. Learn more now.