SIDS and sleep environment

Blair in his editorial defines SIDS as an exclusion diagnosis: a child died and after studying all factors involved we cannot demonstrate an adequate cause of death. In 1969 Beckwith put down this definition and after the following 40 years of intense research there is no prospective of finding a single plausible cause for cot death. There are, though, factors that increase the SIDS risk, including, but not limited to, breastfeeding or not and sleep arrangements. In different research groups Blair et al studied the correlations between sleep arrangements and SIDS and between bed sharing and breastfeeding. Thy found that sleeping place sharing children who died of SIDS always also had other risk factors involved, like prematurity, being ill of not well, parents who smoked or were under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the use of head-covering, pillows or sofa’s. Bed sharing in the first 15 months (or longer) proved positive in better breastfeeding outcomes. Health behaviour education for parents about sleep arrangements should always take into account these positive outcomes for breastfeeding. Good information about safe bed-sharing seem to have the best potential to secure breastfeeding and prevent SIDS as much as possible.
Blair PS, Fleming PJ: Recurrence risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Arch Dis Child 2008;93:269-270
Blair PS,  Sidebotham P, Evason-Coombe C, Edmonds M, Heckstall-Smith EMA, Fleming P: Hazardous cosleeping environments and risk factors amenable to change: case-control study of SIDS in south west England. BMJ 2009; 339:b3666
Blair PS, Heron J, Fleming PJ: Relationship Between Bed Sharing and Breastfeeding: Longitudinal, Population-Based Analysis. Pediatrics 2010 126: e1119-e1126