Dummies and Cot death

[GingerBearingGifts]

BBC Breakfast - report says that they reduce the risk of SIDS. But also that if you give a baby a dummy, not to take it away again as the risk increases more than for a baby who hasn't had a dummy.
So do we maintain a nightly vigil over the crib to ensure the dummy doesn't fall out?
And what about babies like mine who rejected a dummy outight?

Why not co-sleep & breastfeed through the night. The breast is natures "dummy".

This \adc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/81/2/112{url\study} shows no increased risk

Sids is pretty unusual and so reducing the risk by half or more still leaves you with omparatively small numbers

Milward - Wandering dangerously into the situation that some people can't/won't/have serious problems with breastfeeding..... me being one.... so its not always that simple.

milward, co sleeping in the modern sense - soft bedding, duvets, really close contact - actually increases the SIDS risk for very young babies.

In less developed societies co-sleeping seems to be an entirely different business - mats on the floor, no soft bedding, not such close contact.

This from the FSID site:
' * One of the problems [with the study] is that the current study does not make any reference at all to the risk identified in previous studies of increased danger if the parents forget one night to give the baby a dummy and we are consulting with Dr Li on that issue.

• Another problem is that the current study suggests that there is no beneficial effect of using a dummy amongst some of the population at most risk of cot death, for instance babies born at low birthweight. There is no current national information in the UK on who uses dummies, and therefore FSID will conduct a study of dummy use in the UK to provide this information.

What counts as 'low birthweight'/'small at birth' btw?

2manyglasses, as I see it, if the group at high risk and the group at low risk have smilar use of dummies, the high risk group will always have a higher incidence of SIDS because they are more at risk! ie if three women who are at high risk all use dummies which cuts the risk from 100% to one third, one baby will still die (totally made up stats of course!). If in the low risk group, all three women use dummies, but their background risk is 10% instead of 100% then it is likely that all babies survive. In fact, if the background risk is that low, it is likely that all babies would survive even if not given a dummy at all.
Nobody suggests that if you give a dummy you can ignore all the advice about back sleeping, smoking, overheating, loose bedding etc etc

2manyglasses, as I see it, if the group at high risk and the group at low risk have smilar use of dummies, the high risk group will always have a higher incidence of SIDS because they are more at risk! ie if three women who are at high risk all use dummies which cuts the risk from 100% to one third, one baby will still die (totally made up stats of course!). If in the low risk group, all three women use dummies, but their background risk is 10% instead of 100% then it is likely that all babies survive. In fact, if the background risk is that low, it is likely that all babies would survive even if not given a dummy at all.
Nobody suggests that if you give a dummy you can ignore all the advice about back sleeping, smoking, overheating, loose bedding etc etc

I find things like this scaremongering.
Every mother is worried about SIDS.
Every mother has an opinion on dummies.
When me and my sisters were babies, we were put to sleep on our fronts and never had dummies. My mum shakes her head at a lot of the stuff that is recommended nowadays, esp as it's so contradictary. Dont use a dummy, it interfers with breastfeeding. Use a dummy, is reduces the risk of cot death.
If this study said to me using a dummy means that a baby will not suffer SIDS, I'd be buying shares in a dummy company and buying them for all the babies I know. But even using them, there is a risk.
At the moment, my DD is placed on her back to sleep, sleeps in our room, is rarely held by anybody who smokes, there is no smoking in my house, no pets in the bedrooms, sleeps in a grobag so there are no blankets to fall on her face... the list is endless, but even doing everything, there is a risk.
It's something that I didnt want to hear this morning, espcially as my daughter has been very ill with bronchiolitis and I've had a few sleepless nights watching her struggling with her breathing. If I'd been giving my DD a dummy from birth, and taken it off her this week as she struggles to breath through her nose, I'd have been feeling terrible at the idea I'd increased her risk of cot death.

I was a human dummy for 17 months. Based on this report, I will continue to offer my services to my next child, if I manage to have one. Milward, I'm with you.

blueshoes - some people can't breastfeed.... so thats a bit cruel to be honest. Same old Same old.... everything is solved if you breastfeed. And if you're unable to then you're a freak/terrible person, is that it????

People should be careful when they are sitting on that pedestal!

Elf, of course it's not scaremongering! Do you think that no research should be done on medical issues at all? Especially ones that are to do with babies dying?
This research suggests a way parents can reduce the risk of their baby dying of SIDS - how can that be 'scaremongering'?
Obviously you don't have to follow the advice. It's not the law. But suppose you had a baby that died after sleeping on his front, and nobody told you anything about putting him to sleep on his back and then you found out. Wouldn't you be pretty angry?

DS1 had a dummy, but DS2 nearly 6mths won't have one (I have tried ) he prefers the breast.
I went to the baby clinic to get him weighed this morning and the HV told me I should use a dummy and asked if I'd seen the news. I said how can I force him to have one if he won't suck it she said I should preserver .
Now I'm worried sick that I should be giving him a dummy!

persevere

I think all we have to remember here is that the study is only suggesting that the use of a dummy may reduce the (already tiny if you follow all the other recommendations) risk of SIDS. It is not specifically recommending the use of a dummy in the same way as we are all advised to put babies on their backs. Not using a dummy is not going to increase the chances of SIDS. I certainly won't be rushing out to buy a dummy.

Typical flippin' HV. Probably hasn't had time to read it, or doesn't have time to engage in discussion.

So she just lays down the law, willy nilly.

So, err, when we forget to put it in? Babies who are in grobags, who wake up to gnaw a boob every two hours? Chill!!

As has been so wisely said, it's all about balance of risk, not categorically running round to all of our houses to push dummies into reluctant babies' mouths.

Annner

Annner, I agree with your posts. I try to be sensible. There are so many (often contradictory) studies out there, of varying degrees of objectivity and integrity of sampling (and more) that my pea brain cannot and doesn't have the time to investigate. Ok, something recommended by AAP would probably get my attention - but that's about it. To be honest, I pretty much "choose" to follow the studies which reinforce what I have already been doing and "discount" those that don't go with what works for me or dd. Same for parenting theories. And I would take anything a HV suggests with a pinch of salt and a simpering smile.

Not quite sure why everyone has suh a problem with dummies tho? Two of my three had dummies (after they had stopped BF) and they really were no problem. And though it's just my family, the speech of the two who had them is significantly better than the one who didn't get a dummy... though that's just anecdotal of course!

If I have no.4 the baby will get a dummy. Should I lose a baby to SIDS (god forbid) I would want to know I had followed all the research to the hilt. That's just me of course.

Message withdrawn

Norms, good point . My ds3 has only two words at present... 'where dummy'.

well I am still not planning to use a dummy with dc3

so does that make me a reckless ma?

sackache - some mums do have probs with bf & I understand that - just think that bf could be promoted here & suport to mums given.
thecattle - whats your ref on co-sleeping increasing sid? sid isn't a prob in countries were mums co-sleep. Sure there are safety issues & unicef have a great leaflet on this - to help mums co-sleep with out endangering their babes. Could say that cot death wasn't called this for nothing.
blueshoes - sorry you got grief for supporting bf. bf actually reduces sid as well.

not cosleeping with baby decreases the chances of succesful bf and bf decreases chances of cot death.
personally the only advise thought that would affect me if I were to have another child is not to smoke or have smoke around baby and put them on back (although dd often was put on her side as she slept far better that way).

BF and dummies for me would be about other issues not cot death.