Mama 2 Mama Tips

photo credit: Pop Elegantiarum

A new study came out recently where a number of children who had died of SIDS was studied and more than half were found to have been co-sleeping at the time of death.

In a study from England, most babies who died from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) were sleeping with an adult or another child at the time.Many of these “co-sleeping” deaths occurred in a potentially hazardous environment, such as in a bed or a sofa shared with an adult who recently used drugs or alcohol, according to the report in the British Medical Journal.

At first glance it seems to be very damning of co-sleeping, suggesting that co-sleeping itself increases risks of SIDS in infants. However, I have a few problems with this study.

My first issue is the relatively small number of children studied. The 4-year study featured 4.9 million people and 184,000 births, yet only focused on 80 infants who had died of SIDS and 82 who had risk factors and did not die. It has been several years since I took a statistics class, but I am certain that 80 is such a small number it is impossible to make a solid case about a large population. I wonder why they focused on so small a number for this study. Were they unable to find more parents of infants willing to participate? Or did they scale the study down in order to prove the point they set out to make?

My next problem is with the claim verses the reality. The article states that the doctors want to point out the dangers of co-sleeping, yet it wasn’t merely co-sleeping that killed infants. First the claim of SIDS. If the child was smothered, then it is not SIDS. SIDS is the name given when no clear cause can be found. You cannot point to a case of a mother rolling onto her infant and smothering it and claim it is SIDS. No more than you can say being shot in the chest is a natural cause of death.

Next, the numbers do not quite add up. Of the 80 infants that did die, 54% were co-sleeping at the time of death. Of those 31% had used drugs or alcohol, 17% were sleeping on a couch. So we’re not really looking at pure co-sleeping verses crib sleeping. The researchers, or at least the article’s writer, lumped together co-sleepers with parents who got drunk, took drugs, and passed out on the couch next to their baby. The latter being not true co-sleepers.

Imagine this scenario. A study is done on infant deaths while traveling in a car. They study about 100 deaths (out of who knows how many actually occurred) and found that some of the infants were not buckled in correctly, and that some others the parents where driving drunk. Now, they could take this and use it to educate parents how to buckle child safety seats correctly or promote parents not to drive under the influence. But instead they launch a report that driving with your child is dangerous at all times, there is no safe way to drive with your child, and all parents need to get rid of their carseats immediately and begin walking everywhere for the safety of your child.

Would that be logical?

Related Reading:

Neutral no more.(Editorials)(Pediatricians recommend against co-sleeping)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

Troubled sleep.(Editorials)(Parents should discuss risks of co-sleeping)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

The Whipping Boy