Breast-fed babies cut death risk
By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent
(Filed: 22/05/2002)
 

Mothers wanting to cut the risk of cot death should breast-feed their babies, Swedish researchers say today.

Doctors are not sure what causes healthy babies to die in their sleep but the Institute for the Health of Women and Children in Gothenburg found that babies breast-fed for four months or more were less likely to die from sudden infa nt death syndrome.

Dr Bernt Alm and his team questioned the parents of 244 babies who had died of cot death and compared the results with the responses from parents of more than 800 healthy babies.

Their report in The Archives of Disease in Childhood says babies breast-fed for less than eight weeks were up to five times more likely to die from cot death than those breast-fed for at least four months.

"It is possible that frequent feeding, and the resultant closer contact between mother and child, decreases the risk," Dr Alm said.

Joyce Epstein, director of the Foundation of the Study of Infant Deaths, which launched the Reduce the Risk of Cot Death campaign 11 years ago, said: "The finding in Scandanavia that breast-feeding may help reduce the risk of cot death is interesting although not conclusive.

"This needs to be replicated in Britain where breast-feeding rates are much lower."

	21 May 2002: Warning over soya milk for babies
	17 April 2002: 'One family a year suffers two cot deaths'
	19 November 2001[Health]: Mother's milk is best - for some
	25 October 2001: Cot deaths warning
	22 August 2001: 'Breast is best' for brainier babies

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