A baby sharing a bed with an adult is at greater risk of cot death, while the use of soothers may reduce the danger, new Irish research has found.
The research, carried out by the National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Register in Temple Street Children's University Hospital, found that 49 per cent of babies who died from SIDS had been sharing a bed with an adult.
Since 1994, more than 400 babies have died of so-called cot deaths in Ireland. For every baby who died, the Temple Street study looked at three babies who did not. Of the living babies studied, only 12 per cent had been bed-sharing.
The study also found that there was a reduction in the risk of SIDS for those babies given soothers every night.
Prof Tom Matthews, head of the National SIDS Register, said they could not assert that bed-sharing caused SIDS, but the statistics revealed a significantly increased amount of risk to infants who did share beds.
"In the majority of SIDS cases found bed-sharing, 87 per cent had mothers who smoked during pregnancy. It is widely accepted that parents who smoke and who have taken drink or drugs should not share a bed with young infants," he said.
He said that recent studies had shown a 30 per cent reduction in risk of SIDS for babies given soothers every night.
"Seven large case control studies - one by the SIDS Register in Temple Street - have examined this and all have found this reduction in SIDS risk relating to soothers," he said.
There has been a steady decline in cot deaths in Ireland since the early 1990s. The drop was primarily a result of the "back to sleep" campaign in the early 1990s, which advised parents to put babies to sleep on their backs.
A website outlining the new research findings and detailing advice on how to minimise the risks of SIDS was launched recently and can be accessed at:
