Pat wrote:
<just read a 2007 article on SIDS in the Netherlands.  138 cot deaths in the period studied, 36 were in parent's beds (their study showed BF or not wasn't issue) but what about the 102 cot deaths in the baby's cot?  
Isn't sleeping alone a greater risk???  I wish I knew how to digest research better.  Pat in SNJ>

That's this study, right?

Ruys et al. Bed-sharing in the first four months of life: a risk factor for sudden infant death. Acta Paediatrica 2007: 1 - 5 (sorry, don't seem to have the volume number on my copy).

This was a case-control study, which means the researchers looked at a group of SIDS infants (the cases) and compared them with a group of living infants of the same age (the controls) to see whether bedsharing was more common in the SIDS group than the control group, which would indicate a possible link. In this case, as you say, 36 of the 138 SIDS babies were bedsharing during the night of their death, which is 26%. The comparison group of non-SIDS babies included 1628 babies, of whom only 9.4% were bedsharing during the night before the interview (which was the night picked for a reference point). So, there's a substantial difference there suggesting that bedsharing and SIDS may be linked.

While the statistics are fine so far as that point goes, there's a different reason why this particular one is not a very good study - it doesn't control for any confounders other than smoking and breastfeeding. A good study on bedsharing/SIDS risk should control for socioeconomic status (poorer parents may be more likely to bedshare and also more likely, for different reasons, for their baby to suffer a SIDS death), bedding, alcohol or drug use by parents... and that's just a few examples off the top of my head, not an exhaustive list. So, as far as bedsharing risk goes, this study doesn't actually prove anything. 

In answer to your question: Sleeping alone (as in, in a separate room), is a greater risk, but sleeping in a cot by the bed appears safer than bedsharing in the early months of life, or for the children of smoking parents. After the early months, optimised bedsharing and optimised cot-sleeping appear about equivalent in risk for infants of non-smoking parents, although bedsharing is still higher risk among smokers. See http://parentingmythsandfacts.com/2011/12/15/the-truth-about-bedsharing-risks-and-why-it-may-not-be-what-you-think/ 

(What *was* useful about this particular study was that it provided the first evidence that feeding method doesn't make a difference to bedsharing risk - in other words, that the risk applies similarly to both breastfed and formula-fed infants. This has since been confirmed in a meta-analysis in the BMJ last year.)


Best wishes,

Sarah Vaughan

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