What a sad day in America when ignorant people are granted the ability to
make blanket statements that will affect the proper nurturing of our
collective young and  possibly prevent SIDS. During my Senior year in nursing
school I choose to do my research paper on SIDS, that was in 1994. I have
always had immense respect for the Lancet and I remember reading a well
designed and controlled study about SIDS, conducted in Japan. It performed
autopsies on Infant's who had been labeled as dying from SIDS and they found
a high percentage of brain stem abnormalities in these infant's. I would like
to have known how many co slept verus crib slept. Common sense , research and
a millenia of practical expreience tell us that co-sleeping does not kill our
babies. Subclinical infection, cigarette smoke, mold in matresses, parents
who drink and drug and physical and/or neurological abnormalities kill our
infants. Too many cofounding variables involved in etiology and investigation
of that etiology of the "suffocation" deaths of  young infants to make this
so called study relevant. Wonder how many babies could be saved by having
their apnea interrupted by the parents chest wall movement while co sleeping.
I think certain precautions should be taken, do not put baby on tummy or
wedged up against edges of bed, not too many big fluffy comforters around for
baby to get wrapped and strangulated in, etc  that would make co-sleeping
safer. But let us not throw the baby out with the bath water. For mother's
who have co-slept , would it be advisable not to have a neurologically
impaired baby that may not be able to make a peep or move if the blanket
smothered him/her? Lisa Mooney

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