Cot death alarms 'no use' Babies should be put to sleep on their backs Electronic monitors used by parents to keep check on babies at risk of cot death are useless, says a research project. However, other experts say the psychological benefits of the devices to the parents make them worthwhile. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome usually strikes between two and six months, and its causes are still not fully understand.
Electronic devices are available which monitor the heart rate and breathing of sleeping babies.
It was thought that significant changes in these two could precede sudden infant death. Not recommended And in these circumstances, it adds, it would be inappropriate to continue recommending such monitors to parents. The researchers looked at 1,079 infants in five US cities, monitoring them at home for a total of 718,358 hours in the first six months of life. This suggested that these physical phenomena were not immediate precursors of cot death. Strategies advising parents to put newborns to sleep on their backs rather than their stomachs had already radically reduced the number of SIDS cases, he said.