By LEE BOWMAN
Scripps Howard News Service

Simon Hunsberger was lying on his back in bed between his dad, Jeffrey Hunsberger, and his mom, Michelle Legere, when they found him lifeless in their Vermont home one Sunday morning in August 2005.

"We just woke up and he was on his back, one arm up by his ear, and he was just cold; he'd been dead for a while," Hunsberger said.

By LEE BOWMAN
Scripps Howard News Service

It's the ABCs of infant safe sleep -- Alone, on the Back, in a Crib.

But as counselors and researchers reviewing sudden infant deaths around the country have found, there are often financial, social and educational barriers to many families having a proper crib where their baby can sleep.

By Scripps Howard News Service

The American Academy of Pediatrics published a 2005 policy statement that discourages parents from sharing beds with infants. The statement includes recommendations to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome during naps and overnight. Here are the academy's seven guidelines:

By THOMAS HARGROVE and LEE BOWMAN Scripps Howard News Service The mystery of sudden infant death has been solved in a growing number of communities in America. But the answer is seldom SIDS. Coroners who carefully follow federal guidelines while probing the 4,000 unexpected infant deaths nationally each year are discovering a hard truth. Most of these babies are suffocating in completely avoidable accidents, a nine-month investigation by Scripps Howard News Service has found.

By LEE BOWMAN
Scripps Howard News Service

Backed by an $11 million grant from the Gates Foundation, the infant-survival group First Candle has launched a new program of crib giveaways and education aimed at giving every baby a safe place to sleep.

Through the grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Monday, First Candle plans to distribute as many as 200,000 cribs and attempt to give parents both the equipment and the information to ensure a safe sleep environment for their baby.

While the vast majority of sudden deaths of babies are entirely innocent tragedies befalling loving parents, a troubling number of child murders have masqueraded, sometimes for years, as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Here's a look at some cases that have surfaced this year alone:

By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service

The first child death review team was created in California in 1978 under the leadership of pediatric psychiatrist Michael Durfee, medical coordinator for the Child Abuse Prevention Program at the Los Angeles Department of Health Services.

By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service

Idaho became the only state in the country that doesn't give special attention to the deaths of children in 2002 when the Idaho Child Death Review Team was disbanded.

"The problem was the team had no ability to obtain medical records. We didn't have subpoena powers so we couldn't do proper investigations," said Tom Shanahan, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.