New Irish study shows bed sharing babies more likely to suffer cot death
A study released yesterday by experts at Dublin’s Temple Street Children’s University Hospital found 49% of infants who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome had been sharing a bed with an adult.
Professor Tom Matthews, head of the national SIDS register at Temple Street, urged mothers and fathers to heed the warning.
“We cannot assert that bed sharing causes SIDS, but the statistics reveal significantly increased amount of risk to infants who do so,” the professor said.
“Several studies have indicated that the associated risk of bed sharing applies only to younger babies and babies whose parents smoke, but recent data suggests that even among non-smokers, bed sharing increases the SIDS risk in younger infants.”
Professor Matthews said 37% of cases may have been prevented if there was no bed-sharing.
The study also revealed that in the majority of SIDS cases where there was bed-sharing, 87% involved mothers who smoked during pregnancy.
A new website has been launched with recommendations on how to minimise the risk of cot death, and Prof Matthews urged expectant mothers and parents of newborn babies to visit it at www.sidsireland.ie.
The cot-death rate in Ireland has seen a steady decline over the last 15 years to a rate of 0.6 per 1000 live births in 2002, the lowest recorded to date.
Prof Matthews said it represented a drop of 73% from the 1980s mainly due to the ‘back to sleep’ campaign which advised parents to put babies to sleep on their backs.
Experts at Temple Street also noted that the risk of cot-death can be further reduced by the use of dummies or soothers.
Prof Matthews added: “It has been shown recently that infants who are given soothers every night have a significantly reduced SIDS risk - down 30% - than if they were not using soothers.
Seven published studies - one conducted by experts at Temple Street - have found a reduction in the risk of SIDS relating to the use soothers, according to the Professor.
