Webchat with Professor George Haycock, FSID scientific adviser, Tues 30 June, 1-2pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

A little while ago, following new expert advice about co-sleeping and cot death, some of you asked if we could get someone on from the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID).

FSID scientific adviser Professor George Haycock has kindly agreed to come on to discuss the advice, so he'll be in Mumsnet Towers next Tuesday lunchtime at 1pm .

Please post your advance questions here. Obviously he may not be able to answer all of them, but we'll make sure he sees them.

Thanks
MNHQ

GM - the dummy research is not necessarily sponsored or funded by manufacturers, though.

Actually this chat has made me much better about co-sleeping.

Without knowing how ALL children and babies sleep at night, the stats prove nothing and hence I can might as well do what I feel is best for my children.

I have the utmost respect for Prof. Haycock's expertise but I cannot see how it can be said that bedsharing has a higher risk of SIDS than lone sleeping, when I have yet to see any research that proves this.

The figures quoted do not tell me the population size of each group - CherryChoc made a good illustration further up thread by comparing with carseats. Simply saying 'bedsharing is riskier' does not tell anyone much, it needs to be backed up by research.

but wouldnt a post mortem shows these bacterias?

Thanks for your responses Prof. However there is a large and growing number of studies linking breastfeeding to reduction in infant mortality in developed countries, particularly susceptibility to meningitis causing bacteria such as hib. There are also studies indicating breastfed babies do better health wise in the long term [less risk of obesity, allergies, etc] So I do not think the benefits of breastfeeding in developed countries are exaggerated at all.

Tiktok - thats kind of what I asked. Unfortunately the study did not take into account duration of breastfeeding so whilst there is thought to be a protective effect over all of using a dummy, it did not distinguish between mums who breastfed for a few weeks - or perhaps breastfed in a scheduled way.

My thinking would be that in true on demand breastfeeding then the mothers nipple acts like a dummy in many different ways - infants fall asleep with a nipple in their mouth, may continue sucking in their sleep, do not sleep deeply, wake to feed frequently etc.

I would like to see a study (or the findings reanalysed) looking at the odds ratio for specific groups of mothers depending on duration and style of breastfeeding.

Last one, greenmonkies,

We simply don't know that infants in these developing countries don't die of SIDS. The infant mortality from other causes is so high that a few cases of SIDS simply wouldn't be noticed (for example, if the SIDS rate were two per thousand births, bearing in mind that SIDS can only be properly diagnosed by a skilled investigation including an expert postmortem examination, and the overall infant mortality was 10% or even higher, as it is in some places).

So we simply don't know how many babies in these societies die of SIDS. In many cases we have no idea why they die at all since many of them never reach a doctor or other health care professional, let alone a hospital.

And yes, I have worked in a developing country.

Thank you very much to Professor Haycock who has to call it a day now - think we'll all agree he gave v thorough answers and stayed as long as he could, so thanks to him and thanks to everybody who took part.

peppa, I too would like to see those studies.

SIDS stats are difficult eough to compare across cultures, times, and lifestyles; the definition of 'breastfed' is another aspect of this. As you say, someone who has been breastfed may have had one actual breastfeed!

Leonie UNICEF says "Finally, since we do not know the mechanism by which dummy use may protect babies, other sources of sucking comfort during the night also need to be investigated. It is possible that thumb sucking is protective, and a baby who routinely sucks his thumb is not dependant on his parents to remember to give it to him. Some studies have also suggested that breastfeeding may be protective against SIDS. While this also needs further investigation, the access a bed sharing baby has to his mother's breast during the night may offer another mechanism for protection."

Yes thanks very much to the professor. It's just a shame he couldn't answer the most critical question: What percentage of babies who co-sleep die of SIDS? How do we know the percentage when we don't know how many parents in the UK/world co-sleep?

I use a normal cot mattress with a sidecar, LeninGrad. I pushed the mattress across so that it was flush with the bed mattress and plugged the gap on the other side (ie between cot mattress and bars) with rolled up towels. There are no gaps anywhere - I can show you a picture if you like.

Thanks for coming on, Prof. Haycock.

I haven't seen anything here that would make me think twice about having my next baby in bed with me. I would take the same sensible precautions I took with DD - no pillows or heavy soft bedding, firm matress, no alcohol/smoking, fully BF. I'd choose to share a bed again as it is the only way I could have continued to BF on demand which I think is a very important factor in determining my child's health for the future.

It seems there are no figures on how many babies actually bedshare and so I just can't tell what the risk is and if it really is higher than if I put my baby in a cot.

... So we'll all carry on sharing sleep then? I can't imagine waking up, sitting up, getting the baby out of the cot, latching on and making myself knackered instead of hearing my baby sleep, and barely listening out for that little noise that means I have to tilt my boob infant-wards.. or getting paranoid that I have lost the dummy or it's got covered in fluff or whatever.

Prof. Haycock's comment at 14:18:04

"Another theory (that does not necessarily invalidate the first) is called the common bacterial toxin hypothesis. This holds that abnormally exaggerated inflammatory responses to minor infection (largely due to our old friend, or enemy, Staphylococcus aureus) may be triggered by the bacteria being incubated at higher temperatures (about 37 degrees Celsius), and that face down sleeping, and also head covering and overheating, reinforce this. The key element in this argument is that it is known that toxic strains of these bacteria only produce a certain dangerous toxin when incubated at these higher temperatures."

really makes me think of my MIL's belief that babies should be swaddled, kept very warm and face down. Perhaps an unfortunate combination.