aaargh- is there anything that doesn't cause cot death? Now its swaddling apparently..........

[fustilarian]

express article

This is making me feel really glum. Having got into the bad habit of putting my 8 week old twins on their tummies in the day because they just love it and sleep brilliantly, I have weaned us all off it to replace with swaddling- nice and safe on their backs, or so I thought....

apparently you should only swaddle 'if you have a strong reason to do so' and be aware of the risks.

[dilemma456]

Message withdrawn

[l39]

The more I read about these risks the less sense they make.

So now half of cot deaths are due to bedsharing and a quarter to swaddling, leaving only a quarter to have anything to do with stomach sleeping, smoking in pregnancy, smoking in the home, being one of twins or more, having low birth weight, using a pillow, being a boy, using a second hand mattress, being born to a mum under 20..........

[funtimewincies]

I too am now more confused than ever. I thought that the evidence that SIDS was caused by something at lung and immune level was now extremely strong, particularly linked to mothers who smoked during pregnancy and that we were less convinced about these external factors such as mattresses and co-sleeping but did them 'just in case'.

[canella]

i imagine if you swaddle your baby in a warm blanket then there would be a risk of the baby overheating but surely mothers are sensible as to how many layers to put on their dc!

i swaddled all 3 of mine in a sheet - never thought anything was wrong with it.

[ElfOnTheTopShelf]

I thought swaddling was a good thing? I didn't do it as I never got the hang of the folding and tucking
Its hard to keep up with the dos and donts.

Can somebody tell me what age it is safe to co-sleep?

[HumphreyCobbler]

I'm sure I read the other day that swaddling reduced the risk of sids as it encouraged the baby to sleep well whilst on their back.

This is hearsay only.

[Jackaroo]

I think, l39, that the way it works is that originally many of hte deaths were related to stomach sleeping, smoking, being a boy etc etc.. but having excluded all those, this is contributory to the rest of them. So actually they are responsible for a very small number of the now smaller number of cot deaths every year.

does that make sense?

My immediate reaction is that it's a factor in teh same way that sleeping in their own room/on their fronts can be.. that they sleep SO well, that they do not have the ability to wake themselves so easily in the event of respiratory issues. In a sshared room the extra noises etc., and on their fronts being so comfortable (!) they sleep far more deeply... among other things.....

[Lerato]

My sister died of cot death and as a child I heard lots of talk about the causes / risk factors. I am sure swaddling was mentioned because of the risk of over heating. When my dc were born I looked into it but never saw it mentioned as a problem. Still didn't swaddle though (was lucky, they didnt seem to need it).

[lazyemma]

I don't understand the article at all. If one in four cot death babies are swaddled, that means three in four aren't - which surely means that swaddled babies are less likely to die of cot death, not more likely.

[onehitwonder]

I wonder if it is the deep sleep thing. When it was reported that babies using dummies at night had a lower risk, I thought perhaps it was due to them having a lighter sleep with the dummy dropping out etc. I did swaddle DS until he was 3 months old and would do so despite this statistic, but was very careful to use appropriate layers of clothing, and weight of swaddle according to the temperature.

[Littlepurpleprincess]

This is crap. Ignore it. I would not go to a newspaper for parenting advice, I would ask my health visitor, or my MOTHER!

If you believed everything you read about caring for babies you couldn't do it. All this 'advice' contradicts itself.

I swaddled DS because it was safer by far. If I didn't he would get all tangled up.

Swaddling is a very old fashioned way of putting a baby down to sleep that is still used. It's stood the test of time because it works.

It's widely used so of course some babies who die of cot death were swaddled. It doesn't mean the two things are linked ffs. Using the same logic you could say that baby boys wearing blue babygrows are at a higher risk because so many percent of cases were wearing them as they slept.

Apply common sense and trust your own judgement as a mother.

[Jackaroo]

Um, LPP, all the mothers I know who listen to their mothers are starting solids at barely 4 months old. My mother choose not to listen to her mother because she thought that babies had to be left in the garden for up to 4 hours a day for "fresh air". It wasn't a newspaper that made up the information, it was Peter Fleming's team at Bristol.

I'd argue that the researchers do not do these studies just to stop themselves getting bored, and they probably applied some sort of criteria to make the announcement they did.

I have first hand experience of cot death and welcome anything that makes it clearer what is a good idea or not when raising small babies. as onehitwonder suggests, you look at the risks and assess for yourself.

Having now looked at the original abstract, I see that 24% of the families had swaddled, as opposed to only 6% of the control group, so there was a big difference that is important in practical, not just statistical terms.

Ah, and just because it works doesn't mean it's advisable, anymore than, I would suggest, most mothers would put spirits in a bottle of formula to help them sleep. We now know this isn't a good idea.

[Littlepurpleprincess]

But all those mothers who are advising to start weaning at 4 months were told to by their health visitors at the time! My mum was told give me solids at 7 weeks! That doesn't mean I would do it, obviously but it shows that 'professionl advice' is just as likely to change and tell you the wrong thing.

Therefore I will ask people I trust and beleive have been good parents rather than following every guideline (that changes every 5 minutes anyway) that I see no evidence to follow.

I will use my own knowledge, common sense and parental instincts thankyou.

[pleasechange]

swaddling is the only thing that helped me get DS to sleep in the early days, don't know how I'd have survived otherwise

surely swaddling in a cellular blanket/sheet can't do any harm as long as appropriate layers of clothing etc

[ButtercupWafflehead]

I guess we have to weigh up the risks.

If I hadn't swaddled DS, I probably would have thrown him out the window due to the whole family being so ridiculously exhausted and fed up

[Littlepurpleprincess]

That's what I think Allnew....a healthy baby is not going to come to any harm wrapped in a blanket. It's getting silly now.

[ButtercupWafflehead]

We only swaddled in a light sheet anyway, to reduce the risk of overheating.