Breastfeeding Reduces Cot Death
By Danell Swim
April 30, 2008
The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID) announces its latest advice that breastfeeding your baby can reduce the risk of cot death. The advice, released to launch FSID’s cot death awareness drive Save a Baby Month which runs from 1-31 May, is based on research which showed that babies who were at least partly breastfed were one-third less likely to die as a cot death than babies who were never breastfed (1).
FSID Director, Joyce Epstein, says: “There are so many reasons why breast is best, but there are none that can be stronger than potentially saving your child’s life. We encourage every new mum to breastfeed.”
Angela Griffin, FSID’s celebrity patron, breastfed both of her daughters and says: “Realising you’re the only person in the world who can give your child exactly what they need is such a great feeling.”
Sally Inch, infant feeding specialist at Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust, says: “The more we discover about breastfeeding, the more important it becomes. Not only does breastfeeding provide the baby with all the nutrients needed, in a form that cannot be replicated artificially, but a baby who is breastfed is at reduced risk of infections (particularly gut, ear, chest and urine infections) and less likely to be hospitalised as a result.” (2)
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