Babies and toddlers are very vulnerable to accidents and injury which can unintentionally be caused by the adults and older children around them.

Key Safety issues for babies

• Cot death
• Sleeping in same bed
• Shaking the baby

Cot death

Cot death is also known as SIDS, which stands for sudden infant death syndrome. Cot death isn't a single illness or disease. Rather, it's a diagnosis, given when an apparently healthy baby dies without warning.

No one knows why some babies die like this. At the moment doctors believe that there may be a combination of factors involved. Some have suggested that certain babies have a problem with the part of the brain that controls breathing and arousal (waking), so they don't respond normally to a breathing challenge such as their bedclothes covering their nose or mouth.

Cot death is not common in babies who are under one month old. It is most common between one and two months. The risk reduces as the baby gets older, with 90 per cent of cot deaths happening in babies under six months (FSID).

Sadly there's no way to prevent cot death. However, you can do a number of things to decrease your baby's risk. Above all else there are two key points to remember: put your baby to sleep on her back and don't expose her to cigarette smoke.

The Department of Health and FSID recommend the following steps:

• Babies should be put to sleep on their back, right from birth
• Keep their head uncovered
• Bedding should be firm
• Parents shouldn’t smoke during pregnancy or allow smoking around their baby
• Avoid overheating your baby
• Take your baby for regular check ups

See the links below for more information and advice about cot death.

Sleeping in same bed

There are various views on letting your baby sleep in the same bed as you. Advantages and disadvantages can only be assessed personally.

Some advantages of your baby sleeping in the same bed as you may be, for example, your baby will know you are there and can respond emotionally and physiologically in potentially beneficial ways. If you work during the day co-sleeping will give you extra time to spend with your baby. Babies who sleep in the same bed as their parents tend to breastfeed more, but disrupt their mothers sleep less. Some studies have claimed that babies who sleep in the same bed are believed to sleep for longer periods of time during the night.

However, there may also be some disadvantages of your baby sleeping in the same bed as you. You may not sleep as well with your baby in bed with you. If your baby is used to falling asleep next to you, he or she may not settle if looked after buy someone else and this may be a habit which is hard to break. The transition between your bed and his or her own bed may be difficult. Or intimacy in bed between you and your partner may become practically impossible.

Recommended precautions for sharing a bed with your baby.

• Adults who have taken alcohol or other drugs and those taking over-the-counter or prescription medications that may cause them to sleep too soundly should not bedshare. Also parents suffering from extreme exhaustion should not share a bed with their baby. Such adults may not be aware of the baby in the bed, creating a risk of overlying and suffocation.
• Your head/foot board railings should have spaces no wider than those allowed in safety-approved cots. As with cots, these spaces can become places for baby to become entrapped and suffocate.
• Refrain from sleeping in a bed with rails with infants under one year. Babies can become wedged between the mattress and the side rail, resulting in suffocation.
• Avoid placing an adult bed directly alongside furniture or a wall. Babies and young children can become trapped between the bed and other furniture or a wall and suffocate.
• A parent with long hair should pull back their hair and fasten it as the hair could become wound about the baby's neck, posing a strangulation risk.
• Refrain from allowing siblings in bed with an infant less than one year old. Very young babies are at a greater risk of overlying and suffocation by older siblings.
• Do not have your baby in bed with you if you sleep in a waterbed. The surface of a waterbed can prevent ventilation if a baby moves to a face down position.

Shaking the baby

Often, although not always, babies and young children are shaken when a parent or carer becomes very frustrated when they will not stop crying due to colic, illness or feeding difficulties. On average a baby will cry for at least two hours every day. If a baby has additional difficulties, they will cry much more than this average and many parents experience a great deal of difficulty managing this.

Many parents may not realise the extent of the damage that a shake can do to a young child. Parents and carers who have a low tolerance level may become angry and more likely to give in and shake the child. However there are many alternatives to try and people to talk to:

Crying is the way all babies make sure that their basic needs are met - they may be hungry, thirsty, need a change of nappy or even some company. Crying is neither your fault nor the fault of the baby.

• Count to ten before doing anything and allow yourself to calm down.
• Consider using a dummy.
• Hug and cuddle your child – perhaps with the use of a baby-carrier so that they are close to your body in order to help soothe them.
• Go for a walk or a drive to help them sleep.
• Make use of a helpline in times of crisis.
• If necessary walk out of the room for a short time, ensuring that you are nearby.
• Ask someone else to take over for a while.

It is never safe to shake a child, not even in play. It is important for siblings playing together or for the babysitter or any other carer to be made aware of the dangers.

If you are ever worried about your child, take him or her to the doctor, health visitor, children’s centre or to the casualty department.

Advice & support

Parents and carers can speak to their Health Visitor, local Children’s Centre or GP for more advice, information and support regarding safety issues and risks which might face their child.

Links

www.babycentre.co.uk/

www.askbaby.com/

www.babyworld.co.uk/

www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/having_a_baby/