Since late 1994 mattress-wrapping has been publicised nationwide in New Zealand, and many tens of thousands of parents have wrapped their babies' mattresses. There has been no material change in that advice in New Zealand since 1992. Don't smoke around your baby. Recent history refutes any suggestion that smoking causes cot death, says Dr Sprott. Smoking was very common in Britain in the 1930s and 1940s, but cot death was virtually non-existent.
Smoking is prevalent in present-day Russia and Japan, but the cot death rates are low.
Put another way, smoking is more common among poorer people, and so is cot death. But it does not follow that smoking is therefore a cot death risk factor. Don't bedshare with your baby if you also smoke or smoked during pregnancy. Misleading advice, says Dr Sprott. The risk posed by bedsharing does not arise from smoking - it arises from the mattress.