Safe Infant Sleep

Safe Infant Sleep

OK, I've had a few minutes to review my notes from the LLL get-together I went to on Saturday. The guest speaker (a really nice guy) was Prof Peter Fleming, an expert in infant development, talking about safety in infant sleep. The gist of the research he shared with us is that 'full' co-sleeping, i.e., having baby in your bed (or you in his) 100% of the time, is protective against SIDS, UNLESS one or both parents smoke, or have drunk alcohol, which are BIG risk factors. Room-sharing is protective whether parents smoke or drink or not, but having baby in a separate room is a risk. Using duvets is a risk, but babies were only found with covers over their heads in cots. Parents awareness of potential overheating is protective against SIDS.

Some sleep lab research found that babies who were co-sleeping, even though the air temperature around their bodies was higher, they had lower core temperatures than the cot-sleeping babies. The sleep lab research also showed that even in mothers who did not regularly co-sleep, sleep patterns matched their babies,' meaning that the babies' wakeful periods coincided with the mothers,' instead of disrupting her pattern.

Co-sleeping on sofas is a BIG risk, (perhaps not of SIDS, but of suffocation) but the possible circumstances of co-sleeping on sofas, possible drunkenness, extreme tiredness, social depravation (i.e. lack of bed) may contribute greater than the actual sofa itself. (But softness of sleep surface is an issue too)

Oh, and by the way, Prof Fleming was at the CPSC meeting when the data which the recent report condemning co-sleeping as unsafe was received, and he decried the report as utterly unsound, there was no depth to the data, no analysis, and it was not appropriate to publish such a strong statement either for or against any sleeping practices based on this data.

Hope this clears a few things up/ sets minds at ease. Oh, and the study only covered children up to 1yo, and most deaths occurred between 2 and 3mo, and between 5 and 10am, particularly between 6 and 7am. I can go into greater detail, but since the research hasn't been published yet, I didn't want to put the whole lot 'over the wires' as it were. Anyone who wants to know has only to ask :-)