LONDON, (Reuters):
CASES OF babies dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) have fallen dramatically over 20 years but deaths while sleeping with a parent on a sofa have risen 400 per cent, researchers said yesterday.
The findings by doctors at the Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol, England, show that campaigns to inform parents about SIDS, or cot deaths, have had an impact.
But Professor Peter Fleming, who headed the research team, said parents need to be aware of the danger of falling asleep with a baby on a sofa.
"The number of deaths of babies in bed with their mothers has gone down by 50 per cent but the number of deaths on a sofa with a parent has gone up by 400 per cent, a four-fold increase," Fleming said in an interview.
"Some of the mothers had not appreciated how hazardous sleeping on a sofa with their baby was," he added.
The reasons why it is so dangerous are unclear.
Although the findings are based on British data, Fleming said the results reported online by The Lancet medical journal would probably be representative of most developed countries.
