SPRINGFIELD – Neglect and abuse killed 90 children across the state last year, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said Thursday, and almost half were infants who died in unsafe sleeping conditions.

The total could rise, department spokesman Dave Clarkin said, as more than 60 death investigations from 2012 are still pending.

Forty of the children were infants who suffocated while sleeping with parents, with blankets or on their stomachs, Clarkin said. All of those practices are considered dangerous and advised against by the American Academy of Pediatrics.