That is the problem. She said parents were unknowingly risking the lives of their babies. Her research, using piglets, found their ability to swallow was greatly interrupted when the animals were given strong doses of the drug. I am a pediatrician and I could not revive them. The piglets died in front of me.
Piglets have similar breathing and sleeping patterns to infants.
Professor Jeffery said the airways that allowed babies to breath were protected by their natural reflex response to swallow and be aroused. This reflex was age-related, confined to young babies and was possibly a hangover from babies' time in the womb. This meant they retained fluid in the back of their throats. This receptor stopped the baby breathing, decreased the heart rate and redistributed blood flow. And we know about 60 per cent of babies who died from SIDS had a cold.