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The 9th annual report on child fatalities in Michigan is now available. The report is based on data collected from local teams who reviewed the deaths of the children in their communities in 2009 and 2010, and contains recommendations to state policymakers on ways that future children's deaths may be prevented.

More than 1,200 community representatives in 62 counties reviewed 1,283 child deaths and determined that more than half (61 percent) were preventable.

The report includes recommendations for increased education campaigns to prevent drug overdoses by teens, and new laws requiring health practitioners to uniformly educate parents on how to prevent sleep-related infant deaths.

In the report's section on sleep-related infant deaths, it notes that "in locations where the most thorough and vigorous scene investigations and caregiver interviews are conducted, the number of deaths to infants who were known to have been on their backs, alone and in a crib free of suffocation hazards drops to nearly zero."

"Although sleep-related infant deaths can and do occur in all types of families, there are groups at elevated risk. Blacks, American Indians and low-income families have experienced sleep-related infant deaths at much higher rates than other groups," according to the report.

You can download a copy of the report here:  http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102179153453-73/Child+Deaths+in+Michigan.pdf