'Health' mattresses alleged to cause sudden infant death

Jan 22, 2006, 17:22 GMT

Dresden, Germany - German researchers into sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) alleged Sunday that mattresses being marketed as especially healthy could suffocate babies sleeping face-down.

The scientists slammed one mattress sold in pure natural product shops: its latex base, reinforced with coconut fibre and covered with chemical-free cotton and nettle fibre, let through very little air, they told a conference in the German city of Dresden.

The SIDS research unit compared it to an ordinary mattress made of foam plastic. The natural one let only 20 per cent of a baby's expelled carbon dioxide disperse from the face, while the foam plastic let through 40 per cent.

Ekkehart Paditz, head of the SIDS laboratory, said parents should make babies sleep on their backs, and buy 'breathable' beds in case infants did roll onto their stomachs while asleep. He said Plexiglas or plywood bases to bassinets were as dangerous for the same reason.

The unit at the Technical University of Dresden blames many sudden infant deaths on babies' breathing or wake-up reflexes being weakened when the infants breathe in their own carbon dioxide again. Some 200 doctors attended the Dresden conference Sunday.