THE CAUSE OF COT DEATH (SIDS) AND HOW TO PREVENT IT
Some parents may be unaware of a 100% successful cot death
prevention
campaign which a New Zealand scientist, Dr Jim Sprott
OBE,has been running in
New Zealand for thirteen years.
Dr Sprott states with certainty that the cause of cot death has
been
discovered: it is caused by very toxic nerve gases which can
be generated
from mattresses and certain other bedding used in
babies' cots.
The solution is to prevent exposure of babies to the gases, by
wrapping
mattresses in accordance with a specified protocol and
ensuring that bedding
used on top of a wrapped mattresses does
not contain any phosphorus, arsenic
or antimony (the chemicals
which - when combined with fungal growth -
can result in the gas
generation concerned).
Mattress-wrapping has been publicised nationwide in New Zealand since 1995,
and during that time an estimated 170,000 babies have slept on wrapped
mattresses. Prior to the commencement of mattress-wrapping, New Zealand
had the highest cot death rate in the world (2.1 deaths per 1000 live
births). Following the adoption of mattress-wrapping the New Zealand cot
death rate has fallen by 68% - and there has been no reported cot death among
those babies who have slept on correctly wrapped mattresses. Among the
ethnic group most likely to wrap babies' mattresses (NZ Europeans) the cot death
rate has fallen by around 85%.
These major reductions in New Zealand cot death rates cannot be attributed
to orthodox cot death prevention advice (e.g. face-up sleeping). There has
been no material change in that advice in New Zealand since 1992.
So what does Dr Sprott say about orthodox cot death prevention
advice?
* Don't smoke around your baby.
Recent history refutes any suggestion that smoking causes
cot
death, says Dr Sprott. Smoking was very common in Britain
in
the 1930s and 1940s, but cot death was virtually non-existent.
Smoking is prevalent in present-day Russia and Japan, but
the
cot death rates are low. No cause-and-effect
relationship
between smoking and cot death has been established - they
are
socio-economic parallels. Put another way, smoking is
more
common among poorer people, and so is cot death. But it does
not
follow that smoking is therefore a cot death risk factor.
* Don't bedshare with your baby if you also smoke or
smoked
during pregnancy.
Misleading advice, says Dr Sprott. The risk posed by
bedsharing does not arise from smoking - it arises from the
mattress.
Adults' mattresses very frequently contain the same
chemical and fungi
as babies' mattresses, and therefore they
can generate the same toxic
gas/es. (For physiological reasons
adults are not put at risk by
this gas generation in
mattresses.)
* Sleep your baby with feet to the foot of the cot.
According to Dr Sprott, this practice affords no
protection
whatsoever against cot death. Any area on an
unwrapped mattress
where a baby sleeps is a potential source of toxic
gas, since
that is the area which becomes warm and moist (promoting
the
fungal activity which can cause gas generation).
* Sleep your baby face up.
Face-up sleeping is a partial preventive against cot death.
This
is because the gases which cause cot death are more dense
than
air. They diffuse away towards the floor, and therefore a
baby
sleeping face up is less likely to inhale them.
So the partial success of face-up sleeping confirms the toxic
gas
theory. And so does much more research. According to Dr
Sprott
(who has a PhD in chemistry and is expert in the gas
generation
concerned), every step in the toxic gas theory for cot death
has
been proved. A considerable amount of this research has
been
written up and published in peer-reviewed medical and
other
scientific journals. In fact, mattress-wrapping for cot
death
prevention is supported by wider research than supported
the
introduction of various items of orthodox advice (including
face-up
sleeping). And contrary to claims by numerous orthodox
cot death
researchers, the 1998 UK Limerick Report did not
disprove the toxic gas
theory (as a highly qualified
environmental scientist has pointed out in the
New Zealand
Medical Journal).
Some researchers have stated that cot death may have a number of
causes
(the "multifactorial" theory). Not so, says Dr Sprott.
At this point
he draws attention to a highly significant piece of
information about cot
death: the cot death risk rises from the
first baby in a family to the
second, and from the second baby to
the third, and so on. Babies of
solo parents have a very high
cot death rate.
Dr Sprott explains that the rising rate of cot death from one
sibling to
the next destroys every medical and physiological
theory for the cause of cot
death.
* For example, some researchers think cot death is caused
by
babies re-breathing their exhaled carbon dioxide. However,
all
babies exhale a similar amount of CO2, regardless of
whether
they are first, second or later babies. Therefore, the
rising
rate of cot death from one sibling to the next refutes the
CO2
theory.
* Some researchers think cot death is related to the size of
babies' airways. However, for this theory to be valid would
require second babies' airways to be smaller than those of first
babies; and third babies' airways to be smaller than those of
second
babies; and so on. Clearly, therefore, the airways theory
is
wrong, because the size of babies' airways is not related to
birth
order.
So what is the explanation for the rising rate of cot death from
one
sibling to the next? Cot death is caused by gases generated
in
mattresses - and many parents re-use mattresses from one baby
to the
next. If a mattress contains any of the chemicals
concerned and fungi
have become established in the mattress
during previous use by another baby,
generation of toxic gas
commences sooner and in greater volume when the
mattress is
re-used.
This accounts for the rising rate of cot death from one sibling
to the
next. It also accounts for the very high cot death rate
among babies of
solo parents, who for economic reasons are more
likely to sleep their babies
on previously used mattresses which
they have acquired secondhand.
It all fits from a theoretical point of view, says Dr Sprott - and the
thirteen-year New Zealand experience provides practical proof that
mattress-wrapping prevents cot death.
Orthodox cot death researchers say that cot death rates have
fallen
without the introduction of mattress-wrapping - and they
have. But Dr
Sprott points out a crucial difference: Many
babies have died of cot
death where parents followed orthodox cot
death prevention advice - but there
has been no reported cot
death on a correctly wrapped mattress. Unlike
orthodox advice,
mattress-wrapping has a 100% success record in cot
death
prevention.
IMPORTANT: Mattress-wrapping must be carried out in accordance
with a
strict protocol. For full information, contact Dr Sprott
by e-mail (sprott@iconz.co.nz) or visit the following
website:
www.cotlife2000.co.nz. You can
write to Dr Sprott at 10 Combes
Road, Remuera, Auckland 1050, New
Zealand. His phone/fax number
is +64-9-5231150.
Dr Jim Sprott is a New Zealand scientist. He has
been publicising mattress-wrapping for cot death (SIDS) prevention since
1995. Readers are welcome to contact him for information.
