Cot Deaths: Unicef hits out at babies guidance

18 May 2004

Unicef UK has called for Department of Health guidance on cot deaths to be amended. Last week the department advised all parents to avoid sleeping in the same bed as their babies.

But Andrew Radford, director of Unicef UK's Baby Friendly Initiative, said the advice was "incomplete" and had "the potential to undermine national efforts to promote breastfeeding". He added that it "may even increase the risk of accidents and cot death".

Radford said: "Bed sharing is indeed linked with a risk of cot death, but only in the presence of known risk factors - smoking, alcohol consumption, use of drugs that increase sleepiness, and extreme tiredness."

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