Questions about SIDS & putting baby in own room, sorry if thi isn't the right place.

[shouldIbecrossaboutthis]

My Ds is 12 weeks today and has slept from 10/11pm-9/10am since about 6 weeks old. I'd like to move him out of the bedside cot and into his own room in the next few weeks because the bedside cot is getting too small. We've started doing day time naps in his room and everything is going ok.

I know the guildlines for SIDS are not to put them in their own rooms before 6 months, but does anyone know why? If there is a reason then I'll keep him in with us, I'm not one to take chances. But if it's just a worldwide rule based on various factors then I might make more of a personal decision.

Anyone know? Thanks!

Nobody knows why, it's a numbers game. Proportionally, more babies who slept in their own rooms died from cot death than those who didn't, and that is the reason for the advice.

Fortunately the numbers are now so low that we will never find out why, because it doesn't happen often enough for any reliable studies. The Bradford sleep study is the most up to date research about cot death that we have, and that is based on average cot death rates in differing communities which tend to have different practices - nothing concrete, because figures are too low.

"If there's a reason I'll keep him in with us"

No dear, they just put that as part of the recommendations to fill up space on the leaflet.

we are very lucky aren't we?, both my mum and my nan knew a number of people in their mum/peer group who lost babies to SIDS, and thank god I don't know anyone at all first hand who has from my generation as it is much rarer now thanks to the research.

By definition it's unexplained isn't it? if a cause of death is found it isn't SIDS is it?, so we just have the risk factors to go on but I'm very glad we do have that at least!

CoolYule Do you know what that meta-analysis study was? I have always thought that the big problem with bedsharing studies is that they tend to lump ALL sleep-sharing in together, including unsafe bedsharing and sofa sharing which is extremely dangerous. I can't see where it says what the study was but I suspect this might be the case with this one too.

Oh it's okay - I've found it now :) Will read in a while and come back to thread.

Bertie please report back on your findings to save me doing the research myself

bigkids we used a crib once DD grew out of the Moses Basket - it was longer but not really any wider. I linked to the one we had on the previous page. It was fine until she could sit up unaided.

Bertie has it in one - the meta-analysis in question didn't include any new data, and was therefore based on existing studies, the majority (arguable all) of which have serious limitations with regard to the risk of bedsharing in the absence of smoking, alcohol or drugs, and excluding sofa sharing.

The truth is that the data from studies involving many thousands of babies show that babies sleeping alone are at higher risk of SIDS; however nobody really knows why this is.

The bedsharing studies have thrown up a wide range of results. Unfortunately when the larger studies were done, the very detailed data which we would now like to be seen analysed to allow us to assess the risk for babies of non smoking, breastfeeding, sober bed-sharers just wasn't collected. As SIDS rates have fallen the opportunity to collect these data on a large enough scale has, thankfully, disappeared, so it is unlikely that we will ever get a clear answer as to whether there is any evidence for an 'inherent' risk from bedsharing, in the absence of other known risk factors.

The study referenced by posters above simply lumps these earlier studies together, complete with pre-existing limitations, and so really adds nothing new to the debate.

However, what we can say is, for babies bedsharing with non smoking breastfeeding mothers who are not on alcohol or drugs, the magnitude of any increased risk (if it exists at all) appears to be vanishingly small - in the order of an increase in rates from 0.5/10,000 to 1/10,000.

And the harm from giving up BFing and the risk of DH crashing his car being kept awake by screening baby make the benefits of bed sharing a total non brainer!

There is no 'harm' in giving up bf Startail formula isn't posion ffs.

No, not poison, but inferior to bm, yes? However slightly. Same as the very slight change in SIDS risk for bedsharing. Tiny tiny risk, and all any of us can do is make the best decision for our families.

Thanks for the crib link cool yule

Blondie I have done both and no I don't think there is anything wrong in FF.

I do think there is an enormous amount wrong in sabotaging BFing due to fear of co- sleeping.

Whatever, the medical advantages of BFing, which in the first world are probably pretty small. The convenience and ease of BFing over fussing about with bottles is huge.

Coolayule ? ?whilst I would like to know why, all I really need to know is that babies are clearly at significantly higher risk of SIDS in their own room than they are in the parents room. This is borne out by the fact that more babies die in their own rooms than in with their parents. The why isn't as important as the evidence.?

But this is what I?m trying to determine, the why is important to me. Is it the fact that they were in their own rooms (ie. unable to regulate own breathing without other breathing to remind them) or is it the fact they were in their own rooms AND too hot or underneath blankets or unsupervised/out of ear shot etc & because they were by themselves these things went un-noticed.

His bedside crib he is in now is 90cm long and 54cm wide, so the same length & a bit wider than the one you linked too. DS is 77cm long. He pushes himself off the bottom of the cot & hits his head on the top. His room is tiny too, but I might just get a camping mat down, I have a broken coycx though so will have to wait for that to feel better!

Bertie, thanks for mentioning a study, I will have a read.

Zeeboo ? there is no need to be rude. I?m asking a legitimate question & thinking about the reasons behind the advice. Do you not understand the op?

I understand that SIDS is unexplained death in a child under 1. I don?t understand why the research says there is up to 10 times a greater risk of SIDS if a child sleeps in own room, I wonder if other factors had been lumped in.

I wondered if this risk would be reduced if you remove the risk of suffocation (he is too mobile now for sleep positioner & we use growbags, nothing else is in cot), overheating (we have a thermometer & dress him accordingly), being out of ear shot (We have monitor that I clip to myself as I?m a worrier) etc. Or if the 10 times greater risk study (which I can't find) accounted for these factors.

Like I said I wont put him in his own room if the risks are still there. If parents breathing plays a role in it, I would like to read what it is about parents breathing & if this can be reliably mimicked by something else, like a ticking clock as someone says upthread. Although I would worry about batteries running out!

2 friends have lost their babies to sids so I do worry about it. But I also realise the advice is sometimes a bit of blanket approach in order to keep things simple.

Can I add on a query please? I've recently learnt about keeping them downstairs for naps too. Didn't with DS and currently pg.

DS grew out of his Moses basket fairly early and I wondered what (cheap) sleep solutions people used downstairs after their dc grew out of Moses basket? Am likely to have cs and not lots of support after first few weeks so won't necessarily be up to carrying something up and downstairs

I used a fully reclined buggy for dd (suitable from birth) and for ds I used the carry cot bit of the pram/travel system we bought for him.

Mine slept in their buggies downstairs after they grew out of the Moses basket.

Yeah unfortunately we don't have a pram carrycot and I'm wondering whether keeping them in a lie flat pushchair without a mattress is actually better than sleeping upstairs.

Might have to play it by ear but DS would have outgrown a crib by six months as well. Wondering about just a mattress on the flit but then it's not very ventilated.

OP, I don't think you'll be able to unpick what the real risk to your baby of sleeping in his own room would be, or exactly why, because it's not known how sleeping in the same room as a parent prevents SIDS. I don't think you can mimic the effect of the baby being around adults breathing because it's not known what the reason is. I remember reading something about it possibly being to do with CO2 being breathed out, obviously you can't mimic that. There could well be other physiological cues between parent and child that reduce the risk.

Do you have any storage space e.g. a loft? Just wondering if it would be an option for you to remove your bed frame into loft/garage, and put the mattress on the floor with a small mattress next to it for your baby, obviously it might need some work to make it a safe sleeping arrangement.

Ds naps downstairs in his bouncy chair. We had a moses basket downstairs for him but he didn't like it! I never thought about just a mattress on the floor, this is what they have at nursery.

After DD grew out of her Moses basket she napped downstairs either in her lie flat pushchair or on a mattress on the floor, flat and firm, not in a draught so all boxes ticked! Pushchair was often easiest as her monitor went in the shopping basket underneath, but the mattress was useful too.

Previously I'd read younger maternal age was a risk - it was a negative slight on teenage mothers I think. Have they scrapped this?

I worry so much about SIDS. We co-sleep (dd 21wks), we used to use an attached cot but dd now face plants onto the mattress in the night when she is looking for me so i now have her nearer to at least keep her on her back, or her side at the very least if shes being stubborn. I am fastidious about temp, clothing, bedding, naps in same room and we go to bed at same time (luckily dd naturally a 9-9 sleeper)..... Cosleeping is sooo taboo in certain circles it's hindering the research. I think prepared cosleeping is the key - I think very few families have never had the baby in the bed but occasional, exhaustion fuelled cosleeping is possibly more dangerous?? We need to be honest about what we do and then try to learn best ways from each other. I asked my HV what to do re face planting and all she could muster was that we were low SIDS risk because of bfing So I worry, I read all the research (thanks for links!!) and I am grateful for any safe cosleeping tips! X

The younger maternal age is still in there - whether or not it's seen to be a negative slight research shows a higher incidence of SIDS in babies with younger mothers.

I know we were told by FSID, our CONI co-ordinator, paediatrician and HV not to co-sleep at all, ever, but no doubt that was partly to do with our situation. I do think more research needs to be done though to try to at least quantify the risk, if any, in more detailed situations.

The risk of SIDS/co-sleeping are there but small compared with other risks like smoking and prone-sleeping (there are also other significant risks out of our control, such as sex of baby, prematurity and whether it's first born). So there is always rife debate on MN about the risks of co-sleeping. I personally believe most of this attitude is well summarised by Startail's comment: I do think there is an enormous amount wrong in sabotaging BFing due to fear of co- sleeping.

Anyway, anyway. I've just had a thought (early morning brain disclaimer). We obssess over the co-sleeping evidence: have they separated out sofa sleepers or occassional sleepers? Drug and alcohol users etc. But as SIDS death is classed as death by no known cause, I wonder how many deaths would be classified as suffocation and thus excluded from SIDS studies? I wonder this because (cynical old me) I don't believe the majority of co-sleepers do so safely. You're meant to sleep without a duvet, no headboard, probably on a floor matress etc. Not be overweight. Bf only. What are the general risks of death (SIDS + other) in groups that don't include drug/alcohol users?