If you see a young mother putting her baby down for a nap in a cardboard box, don’t be alarmed.

[Photo Courtesy Baby Box Co.]

The boxes are part of a growing movement. Backers believe “Baby Boxes” could lower the infant mortality rate, not only in Texas, but around the world through education about how to keep babies safe while they sleep.

Using the boxes in the U.S. was the idea of Dallas native and Baby Box Co. CEO Jennifer Clary, who heard about them in a news report about the success of Finland’s baby box program, which has been in operation for more than 75 years.

Finland’s infant mortality rates are among the lowest in the world, Dallas Public Radio station KERA said, prompting Clary and a friend, also from Dallas, to found the Baby Box Co. in 2013 and began partnering with hospitals to distribute boxes to new moms in states such as Alabama, Ohio, and New Jersey.

“Baby boxes are not magical. There is no unilateral product you can distribute to parents that will keep your child safe in the absence of understanding and education.”
Jennifer Clary

The Los Angeles-based company launched in Texas this month, and it plans to hand out 400,000 boxes this year in the state. It announced partnerships with several Texas institutions, including Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite and Dallas Medical Center in Farmers Branch, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Dallas mother Taylor Freed recently received a free Baby Box after taking an online course about getting babies to sleep safely, according to KERA.

“It came with some wipes, some breast feeding stuff, some diapers, and a little onesie, too that on the front of it reminds you always have [the babies] sleep on their back so it’s safe,” Freed told KERA.

The boxes are an attempt to address the problem of sudden infant death syndrome and accidental suffocation. Nationally, more than 3,500 babies dies unexpectedly and suddenly in 2015, KERA said.

While the Texas infant mortality rate is below the national average — roughly 5.8 deaths per 100,000 births — some cities, such as Fort Worth, have higher rates.

Babies can suffocate by sleeping too close to parents, pillows, soft toys, and blankets, and the boxes are intended to remove those objects and promote safe sleep for all mothers at little cost.

Clary told KERA that peer-reviewed research studies are underway in an effort to get more support from the medical community.

“Baby boxes are not magical,” she said. “There is no unilateral product you can distribute to parents that will keep your child safe in the absence of understanding and education.”

[Photo Courtesy Baby Box Co.]

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