Bed Sharing 

Parents who smoke are being urged not to share their bed with their baby after a survey found many did not know this raises the risk of cot death. The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths found a third of 428 parents polled had shared a bed with a baby.

What Did Their Survey Show?

• 34% of parents share a bed with their babies at some point
• 38% of smokers share a bed with their baby
• 28% of smokers who share a bed with their baby think this is safe so long as they never smoke in bed
• 17% of parents incorrectly thought it was safe for a parent to fall asleep with a baby on a sofa or armchair
• 95% of parents knew it was unsafe for a baby to share a bed with a parent who smokes in bed
• 22% thought it was safe for a baby to share a bed with a smoker who never smoked in bed.

Why Does Smoking Make So Much Difference?

It makes no difference where or when they smoke - if a smoker shares a bed with a baby it increases their risk of cot death even if they never smoke in bed.

Children of smokers tend to be smaller, and to have damage to their respiratory system, and so are vulnerable to the tiny risk associated with sharing a bed, which is not a factor for more robust babies.

What Will The FSID Do With This Information?

• a new campaign, will highlight the higher risk of cot death associated with smokers sleeping with their baby, even if they do not smoke in bed.
• FSID will promote a cot as being the safest place for any baby to sleep
• its advice particularly applies when the child is under six months old.
• FSID is sending new advice cards to all midwives and health visitors across the country,
• posters are also being sent for display in clinics and maternity units.

FSID director Joyce Epstein said: "The results of this poll are worrying.

"With seven babies dying as cot deaths every week and the high proportion happening when sharing a bed - especially when parents are smokers - we must not be complacent."

Claire Jolly is a health visitor whose baby son Charlie died as a cot death in 1997.

She said: "It's fine to breastfeed your baby in bed but if you smoke at all - even if not in the bedroom - you really must protect your baby and put them in their cot to sleep."