Infant Day-Care Deaths Spark Dakota County Awareness Campaign

Last August, 3-month-old Dane Ableidinger was laid down for a nap on a blanket in the basement of "Bev's Day Care" home facility in Eagan. Hours later, the infant's body was found facedown and bleeding on the blanket—dead of apparent asphxiation.

Ableidinger was one of three infants to die in Dakota County child care homes in just more than a year. All three infants were in unsafe sleeping positions. All of the homes were licensed by the county.

The deaths have led to an awareness campaign by the county that started with postcards mailed earlier this month to 793 licensed homes featuring a picture of a coffin beneath the words, "WOULD YOU WANT TO LIVE WITH THIS?"

"Do the right thing," Kelly Harder, Dakota County's director of community services, told KSTP. "It's something that is preventable, and we want to show that and support in anyway we can as well to make sure there aren't anymore deaths."

Last week, the county released a video that included an interview with Dane Ableidinger's parents and tips to parents and child care providers about how to safely put an infant to sleep.

"When you drop your child off at a daycare, you're entrusting your provider with that child's life," Ableidinger's mother, Stephanie, says in the video. "We will never be the same and we don't have our son here, and that's all because of someone's choice, and it was preventable."

As Patch reported in July 2012, to minimize asphyxiation risks, state law dictates that licensed daycare providers must place an infant on his or her back in a crib with a firm mattress and a tightly fitted sheet. Day care providers cannot place pillows, comforters or other soft objects in the crib with the infant.

Dakota County is offering three free training sessions in May to coach providers on caring for sleeping infants:

• Thursday, May 2, Dakota County Technical College, 1300 145th St. E., Rosemount, Dakota Room, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
• Monday, May 6, Northern Service Center, Room 110A & B, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
• Thursday, May 9, Western Service Center, Room L139, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

The Dakota County website has more information.