Your baby's bedding may be unsafe

Thankfully, combined instances of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) -- which combines Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed (ASSB) and unknown causes -- has decreased overall since 1990. The rate declined from around 155 deaths per 100,000 live births to around 90 deaths in the last 25 years.

According to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the instance of ASSB alone has increased, however: from around 2 in 1990 to its peak of over 20 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014.

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The culprit could be unsafe bedding for infants.

"Parents don't think it's going to happen to them, even though 3,500 infants die each year," Dr. Ian M. Paul, a professor of pediatrics and public health sciences and chief of the division of general pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine, told TODAY.

"They think that if these products are being sold, they are safe," he added.

Paul was involved in a study, published in Pediatrics, that showed that 91 percent of 1-month-old infants are put in cribs with unsafe bedding. Twenty-one percent did not sleep on a safe surface.

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The study examined videos recorded in 160 homes with babies. Three nights recorded: one when the baby was 1-month old, 3-months old and 6-months old.

The unsafe bedding could be pillows, loose bedding, stuffed animals or "bumper pads."

According to Paul, where an infant sleeps "should contain nothing but the baby and what the baby is wearing." It should remain that way until the baby is 1-year-old.

Paul urges new parents to educate themselves on what's best for their babies.