Trooper say child found dead after sleeping on a couch with mother.
An infant was found dead Sunday morning in the village of Aniak, reportedly after sleeping on the couch with her mother.
An Alaska State trooper report said officers, volunteer fire and EMS crews responded to a home after a report that the infant wasn’t breathing. They tried resuscitate the girl but were unsuccessful. The 5-month-old was transported to a clinic where she was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Troopers said it appears the mother fell asleep with the child on the couch around 2:30 am. A relative stopped by the house after 7 am and woke the mother, who discovered her child was not breathing.
Last month in Emmonak a one-year-old girl died in similar circumstances. A trooper report said that baby stopped breathing after sleeping on the couch with her father, who had been drinking that night.
Experts say bed sharing, especially on sofas or couches, raises the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, often by the larger person accidentally suffocating the child during the night.
KYUK's Daysha Eaton and Charles Enoch contributed to this report.