About ten years ago the NZ SIDS research came out with a finding of increased risk of SIDS with co-sleeping which caused a great deal of consternation at the time. (our SIDS prevention messages are very high profile)Six months later a more thorough examination of the data showed that it wasn't co-sleeping in general but smoking associated risk, babies of smokers where at higher risk when they co-slept. The main parent groups Parents Centre and LLL have since been very clear about not co-sleeping if you are a smoker, have been drinking or using any form of sedating drug. Having a firm mattress (no waterbeds) and dressing the baby for the conditions. Many families will bring a baby into bed after starting the night in a crib/cot and they need fewer clothes because of the adult body heat. Alternatively they dress the baby in extra clothes and sleep them on top of the blankets. What infuriated us all was while the original message got first national news story headlines the amendment was a couple of column inches on about page 8 of the newspaper. The NZ SIDS research also found breastfeeding was a protective factor. i guess its getting old know but I have references if anyone wants them just e-mail me and I'll dig them up.
Sonja
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