An article in last week's British Medical Journal suggested that sincethe term sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was introduced in 1969,more has been learned about risk factors and that it may be time to stopclassifying unexplained infant deaths as SIDS.
It said that smoking during pregnancy and parents sharing beds withtheir newborn babies account for most cot deaths.
The Foundation for the Study of Infant Death (FSID) said that if nowoman smoked during pregnancy, about 60 per cent of cot deaths could beavoided, reducing the number of deaths in the UK from 300 to 120 ayear.
Although the number of cases in the UK of SIDS has dropped since theFSID 'Back to Sleep' campaign in 1991, the proportion of babies who diedwhile co-sleeping with their parents has risen from 12 per cent in 1984to 50 per cent in 2003.
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