Bed-sharing increases SIDS risk A controversial review of data from the UK, Europe and Australasia found bed sharing significantly increased the risk of SIDS. Some doctors are calling for parents to be explicitly told not to sleep with their infants after a large study found it led to a five-fold increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome. A controversial review of data from the UK, Europe and Australasia found bed sharing significantly increased the risk of SIDS even when parents are non-smokers and the mother has not been drinking alcohol and does not use illegal drugs. The research published in BMJ Open on Tuesday looked at 1472 SIDS cases and 4679 controls. It showed that one or both parents of 22% of the infants who had died had been sleeping with their child at the time of death compared to 10 per cent of parents in the control group who reported sleeping in the same bed as their child on the day they were interviewed by researchers. The authors said they believed 88 per cent of the deaths that occurred during bed sharing would not have occurred if the baby had been on its back in a cot by the parents' bed. They estimate about half of all SIDS deaths occur when a baby is sharing a bed. "A substantial reduction of SIDS rates could be achieved if parents avoided bed sharing," wrote the authors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. About 125 babies die of SIDS each year in Australia. While the exact cause is unknown, it may be associated with abnormalities in the portion of an infant's brain that controls breathing and arousal from sleep as well as environmental factors such as sleep position which can impair breathing. The authors said their findings should prompt health authorities to take a more definite stand against bed sharing, especially for babies under 3 months. The current messages saying that bed sharing is dangerous only if you or your partner are smokers, have been drinking alcohol or taking drugs that make you drowsy, are very tired or the baby is premature or of low-birth weight, are not effective because many of the bed sharing deaths involve these factors," they wrote. While some doctors supported the push for co-sleeping to be strongly ruled out for parents, Chair of the SIDS and Kids National Scientific Advisory Committee Professor Jeanine Young said it was too early for this to be done in Australia. She said the British research did not properly account for some variables, including how the babies were wrapped, and used questionable methods to make up for missing data. Professor Young, from the University of the Sunshine Coast, also cautioned against hardline advice to parents about co-sleeping because many, especially indigenous parents, had a strong culture of doing it while others thought it helped with breastfeeding. She said explicitly telling parents not to co-sleep could cause some to disengage with health professionals who would be better off giving advice on how to minimise the risks of co-sleeping. She said it could also lead to parents falling asleep with babies in more dangerous environments, such as on sofas or in chairs. "You really need to individualise advice for families," she said. But Professor Paul Goldwater from the University of Adelaide School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health said the British research confirmed co-sleeping should never occur. "Their findings are not surprising and confirm that co-sleeping is particularly dangerous for babies under three months of age," he said.