SIDS, Sudden infant death syndrome, or cot death is a sudden and unexplained death of a healthy infant of one month to one year.
Babies who sleep on their backs are much less likely to die of SIDS.
But, fears of head flattening prevent many mothers from sleeping their babies on their backs. Experts warn that such mothers may be trading SIDS safety issues for fears about head deformation.
The baby’s skull is soft and the head becomes flat on the side if the baby sleeps in the same position for a long time. Most flat heads go away after some time, while some are permanent.
While the exact reasons for apparently healthy infants dying on the cot are yet to be known, it has been found in most cases that babies lying on their sides have died.
Therefore, mothers who make their babies sleep on their sides to avoid head flattening risk losing the infants to SIDS.
A study by Lynne Hutchison and Ed Mitchell of the Auckland University Department of Paediatrics, and Alistair Stewart of the School of Population Health shows that 33% of young mothers are continuing to lie sleeping babies on their stomachs or sides, despite the risk of cot death. Fears about flat heads make them ignore warnings about SIDS or cot death.
An education campaign in 2001 about the sudden infant death syndrome brought death rates down to 0.9 per 1000 live births from 4.3 per 1000 live births 20 years ago.
Researchers say more education is needed to alleviate mothers’ fears about infants sleeping on their backs.
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