The Main Reason Babies Die in their Cribs and What You Can Do About It
By Jane Sheppard (c) Jane Sheppard 2003

Lurking in the back of every new parent’s mind are haunting questions concerning the unthinkable tragedy of crib death. “Will it happen to my baby?” “Can I do anything to prevent this tragedy?” Parents in New Zealand are now finding answers and peace of mind due to a crib death prevention campaign that has been 100% successful in preventing crib death.

Scientists in New Zealand and Britain have discovered that toxic gases generated from a baby's mattress can cause the fatal poisoning of babies, commonly known as crib death or SIDS. Chemical compounds containing phosphorus, arsenic and antimony have been added to mattresses as fire retardants and for other purposes since the early 1950's. A fungus that commonly grows in bedding can interact with these chemicals to create poisonous gases. These heavier-than-air gases concentrate in a thin layer on the baby's mattress or diffuse away and dissipate into the surrounding atmosphere. If a baby breathes or absorbs a lethal dose of the gases, the central nervous system shuts down, stopping breathing and then heart function. These gases can fatally poison a baby, without waking the sleeping baby and without any struggle by the baby. A normal autopsy would not reveal any sign that the baby was poisoned.

The good news is that a simple, inexpensive solution is available to parents all over the world through Cot Life 2000, a New Zealand non-profit organization whose mission is to eliminate crib death. You can prevent exposure by wrapping your baby’s mattress in a gas-impermeable cover and ensuring that bedding used on top of the wrapped mattress is chemical-free.

Proof that mattress-wrapping works continues to unfold through the Cot Life 2000 eight-year crib death prevention campaign. Midwives and other healthcare professionals throughout New Zealand have been actively advising parents to wrap mattresses. During this time, there has not been a single SIDS death reported among the over 100,000 New Zealand babies who have slept on mattresses wrapped in a specially formulated cover. The number of crib deaths in New Zealand that have occurred since mattress-wrapping began in 1994 is about 550. The number of crib deaths that have occurred in New Zealand on a properly wrapped mattress is zero.

A significant amount of evidence backs up this explanation for crib death, but has been and continues to be completely ignored in the U.S. by SIDS organizations, the medical community, and the government - for a variety of reasons, including politics, financial liability, and vested interests. Publication of these findings continues to be denied and suppressed. The result is that babies continue to be at risk from deaths that may easily be prevented.

Eight babies continue to die every night in the U.S. from crib death, the number one cause of death for infants from one month to one year of age. Parents wanting peace of mind are not waiting for doctors or the government to endorse mattress-wrapping. They are taking action now. Inexpensive, easy-to-use mattress covers are available to parents from the Cot Life 2000 organization.

Dr. T. J. Sprott, the New Zealand scientist and chemist who discovered the toxic gas explanation, points out the following fact, which no one has denied: "All New Zealand crib deaths since mattress-wrapping began in late 1994 have occurred when parents have not wrapped their babies' mattresses. An inexpensive, non-toxic protective cover can surely do no harm.”