Argh anxiety around travel cot / SIDS - Please help me mums…

[Dandy008]

At what age can I stop being so paranoid about SIDS? 😣

DC is 18 months old. We’re at a wedding this weekend and have bought a travel cot for him to sleep in.

I’m driving myself crazy worrying that the mattress we’ve bought for it isn’t safe enough and might be a SIDS risk.🤦🏻‍♀️

I really want to relax and enjoy the weekend but im so worried about this mattress he will be sleeping on.

It’s not a foldable mattress, it’s a proper mattress in travel cot size.

At 18 months the risk of SIDS is vanishingly low

No pillows, no toys in the cot, no stuffed animals, make sure he can kick the covers off if he wishes

It’ll be fine

You have passed the danger months for SIDs which is around 1-4 months old.

At 18 months it would be extremely rare for sids to occur. At that age they can have a pillow and a lightweight duvet although you may choose not to use them yet

I relaxed more once we got to 4 months as PP says. By 18m they can have a pillow and a duvet and a mattress. Just make sure it's a lightweight duvet - 4.5tog is usually the maximum recommended as they don't manage heat in the same way adults do.

Why don't you just use the travel cot mattress if you're worried? I know they are thin but babies don't seem to mind. It's not advised really to add any mattresses. However, it's not a SIDS risk but the potential risk is that a baby could roll and get stuck between the mattress and the side of the cot, because they are mesh and therefore flexible. To be honest at 18 months, I don't think this is a huge problem. If they did get stuck nothing will happen. It's more of a problem for tiny newborns who can have problems breathing if there is pressure on their chest. Toddlers frequently wedge themselves into all kinds of situations with no lasting damage caused!

Nearly all cases of SIDS are within the first 4 months, and if a child dies after a year old, it wouldn't be classified as SIDS so you can stop worrying!

Unsolicited advice here but I had severe anxiety about SIDS with my first baby and it was a symptom of a raging dose of PND that didn't get picked up on because I didn't have the classic symptoms of failure to bond with baby etc.

Personally I wouldn't bother with a mattress and if just go with the hard travel cot thing that it comes with. Not because of SIDS but because it's a hassle to travel with a mattress!

SIDS risk never completely goes away. I know an adult who dies of the equivalent. It just becomes so tiny that it's no longer something you can worry about. At 18 months they are way out of the risk zone.