Most Cot deaths are attributed to babies sleeping with parents

October 14, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: Baby Health, News

Over 50% of cot deaths otherwise known as sudden infant death syndrome, (SIDS), happen when babies are asleep with their parents, according to a recent study.

Researchers warned that the findings published online by the British Medical Journal prove that the safest place for babies was beside their parents’ bed in a cot.

Researchers found that parents said that they had been warned about the dangers of sleeping beside their baby in a bed there had been no similar warnings about other places in the home. Some of the children had died after their parents accidentally fell asleep beside them on a sofa.

Babies were also more likely to suffer cot death if their parents consumed alcohol or took drugs, (Where much of the risk was highest) and if they slept on a pillow.

Although there has been a steep decline in the number of cot deaths, 300 babies a year still die in this way.

Leading the study Prof Peter Fleming, from Bristol University said that many parents got up in the middle of the night to feed their baby on a sofa or an armchair, believing that this was safer than feeding them in bed.

“It is really important that parents should not fall asleep with their baby on a sofa as it is very, very dangerous,” Prof Peter Fleming said.

“After parents have fed a baby it is really important they put them back in their cot.

“It is 25 times more risky than having a baby in bed with you.”

Researchers looked at 80 deaths in the South West of England over three years.

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Tags: Bristol University, cot death, cot deaths, Peter Fleming, SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome, the British Medical Journal, United Kingdom

Comments

One Comment on "Most Cot deaths are attributed to babies sleeping with parents"

Katherine Norman on Thu, 22nd Oct 2009 7:42 am

Did you even look at the research. This isn’t what it says at all.
It shows that cosleeping in a bed if you don’t smoke or consume alcohol or drugs is AS SAFE AS a baby sleeping in a separate cot,”
Sleeping on a sofa with a baby is dangerous.

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