Bedsharing with newborns can increase cot death risk: study

Parents who share a bed with their newborn baby could be increasing the risk of the child dying from cot death, research from the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) has claimed today.

According to the study, there is a "small but statistically significant risk" of death to babies under eight weeks of age who bedshare with their parents.

Currently, sudden infant death syndrome claims the lives of seven babies a week in the UK.

The international study, led by Professor Robert Carpenter of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and part-funded by FSID, is one of the largest-ever studies of sudden infant death.

Joyce Epstein, FSID Director, said: “The safest place for a baby to sleep is in a separate cot in the parents’ bedroom.

“It’s very important that research of this type continues – large-scale monitoring of babies who live and babies who die – to be able to identify new ideas for safe infant care. Unfortunately no such national monitoring is now taking place in the UK, and so we have little way of generating and testing ideas for new baby care advice."

Today’s study also confirms a range of other known risks, including the risk of letting the baby’s head get covered by the bedding or using a duvet for babies.

FSID’s advice for parents to prevent the baby’s head accidentally getting covered is to sleep with the feet at the bottom of the cot, blankets tucked in firmly and no higher than the shoulders, to prevent the baby from wriggling under.

The FSID say that it is dangerous to share a bed with the baby if the parents: are smokers (no matter where or when you smoke); have been drinking alcohol; take medication or drugs that make you drowsy; feel very tired; or if the baby is less than eight weeks old.

(gmcg)