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Crib death is the most common cause of death among
infants 1 month to 1 year of age. Ninety percent of all
crib deaths occur among babies under 6 months of age. In
most cases of crib death, the baby has been put down to
sleep in his/her crib and later found lifeless, with no sign
of illness or physical struggle.
Many parents may be
unaware of a 100% successful
crib death prevention campaign which a New
Zealand scientist, Dr Jim Sprott, has been running in New
Zealand for ten years.
Dr Sprott states with certainty that the cause of
crib death
has been discovered: it is caused by very toxic nerve gases
which can be generated from mattresses and certain other
bedding used in babies' cribs. These toxic nerve gases are
generated when compounds of phosphorus, arsenic and/or
antimony in the bedding combine with household fungus which
commonly grows in bedding.
These gases (which
are all anticholinesterase agents), when inhaled by a baby
or absorbed through the baby’s skin in a lethal dose, shut
down the baby’s central nervous system, stopping breathing
and then heart function. Thus the cause of
crib death is not medical – it is the
result of environmental poisoning. The baby can be
fatally poisoned without waking and without physical
struggle.
The solution is to prevent exposure of babies to the gases
by wrapping mattresses in accordance with a specified
protocol and ensuring that bedding used on top of the
wrapped mattresses is not capable of the gas generation
concerned.
Since late 1994 mattress-wrapping has been publicized
nationwide in New Zealand. Prior to the commencement of
mattress-wrapping, New Zealand had the highest crib death
rate in the world (2.1 deaths per 1000 live births).
Following the adoption of mattress-wrapping the New Zealand
nationwide crib death rate has fallen by 56% - and there has
been no reported crib death among those babies who have
slept on mattresses wrapped in accordance with Dr Sprott’s
mattress-wrapping protocol. Among the ethnic group most
likely to wrap babies' mattresses (New Zealand Europeans)
the crib death rate has fallen by around 80%.
These major reductions in New Zealand crib death rates
cannot be attributed to orthodox
crib death prevention advice (e.g. face-up sleeping). There
has been no material change in that advice in New Zealand
since 1992.
The toxic gas theory
for crib death explains every risk factor which medical
researchers associate with crib death.
A considerable
amount of research relating to the toxic gas theory has been
published in peer-reviewed medical and other scientific
journals. In fact, mattress-wrapping for
crib death prevention is supported by wider research
than supported the introduction of various items of orthodox
crib death prevention advice (including face-up sleeping).
According to Dr Sprott
(who has a PhD in chemistry and is expert in the gas
generation concerned), every step in the toxic gas theory
for crib death has
been proved. And the ten-year New Zealand experience
provides practical proof that mattress-wrapping prevents
crib death.
Some orthodox crib
death researchers say that crib death rates in various
countries have fallen without the introduction of
mattress-wrapping – and they have. But there is a crucial
difference: many babies have died of crib death where
parents followed orthodox crib death prevention advice; but
there has been no reported crib death on mattresses wrapped
in accordance with Dr Sprott’s mattress-wrapping protocol.
Unlike
orthodox crib death prevention advice, mattress-wrapping has
a 100% success record in crib death prevention.
Have the results of the New Zealand mattress-wrapping
campaign been reported in medical literature?
In 2002 a German
environmental medicine practitioner, Dr Hannes Kapuste,
published the statistical results of the New Zealand
mattress-wrapping campaign: "Giftige Gase im Kinderbett"
("Toxic Gases in Infants' Beds”), Zeitschrift fuer
Umweltmedizin (Journal of Environmental Medicine)
(2002, No. 44) 18-20.
The "p" factor for the mattress-wrapping intervention was
calculated by Dr Kapuste (in collaboration with the
University of Munich) as being:
p = less than 1.9 x 10-22
It is usual in medical circles to regard a "p" of less than
0.01 (10-2)
as sound proof of a scientific proposition; and if the "p"
is less than 0.001 (10-3),
that is regarded as virtually certain proof.
1.9 x 10-22
(the "p" factor for mattress-wrapping) can be written as:
0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,19
Put another way, the
statistical proof that mattress-wrapping prevents crib death
is one billion billion times the level of proof which
medical researchers generally regard as constituting certain
proof of a scientific proposition. Not surprisingly,
therefore, Dr Kapuste described the toxic gas theory for
crib death and mattress-wrapping for crib death prevention
as having "overwhelming reliability".
In 2004 the results of the New Zealand
mattress-wrapping campaign were published by Dr Sprott in
the Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine
(September 2004) 14(3), 221-232.
The toxic gas theory for crib death explains every risk
factor which medical researchers associate with crib death.
A considerable
amount of research relating to the toxic gas theory has been
published in peer-reviewed medical and other scientific
journals. In fact, mattress-wrapping for crib death
prevention is supported by wider research than supported the
introduction of various items of orthodox crib death
prevention advice (including face-up sleeping).
According to Dr Sprott
(who has a PhD in chemistry and is expert in the gas
generation concerned), every step in the toxic gas theory
for crib death has
been proved. And the ten-year New Zealand experience
provides practical proof that mattress-wrapping prevents
crib death.
Some orthodox crib
death researchers say that crib death rates in various
countries have fallen without the introduction of
mattress-wrapping – and they have. But there is a crucial
difference: many babies have died of crib death where
parents followed orthodox crib death prevention advice; but
there has been no reported crib death on mattresses wrapped
in accordance with Dr Sprott’s mattress-wrapping protocol.
Unlike
orthodox crib death prevention advice, mattress-wrapping has
a 100% success record in
crib death prevention.
Have the results
of the New Zealand mattress-wrapping campaign been reported
in medical literature?
In 2002 a German
environmental medicine practitioner, Dr Hannes Kapuste,
published the statistical results of the New Zealand
mattress-wrapping campaign: "Giftige Gase im Kinderbett"
("Toxic Gases in Infants' Beds”), Zeitschrift fuer
Umweltmedizin (Journal of Environmental Medicine)
(2002, No. 44) 18-20.
The "p" factor for the mattress-wrapping intervention was
calculated by Dr Kapuste (in collaboration with the
University of Munich) as being:
p =
less than 1.9 x 10-22
It is usual in medical
circles to regard a "p" of less than 0.01 (10-2)
as sound proof of a scientific proposition; and if the "p"
is less than 0.001 (10-3),
that is regarded as virtually certain proof.
1.9 x 10-22
(the "p" factor for mattress-wrapping) can be written as:
0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,19
Put another way, the
statistical proof that mattress-wrapping prevents crib death
is one billion billion times the level of proof which
medical researchers generally regard as constituting certain
proof of a scientific proposition. Not surprisingly,
therefore, Dr Kapuste described the toxic gas theory for
crib death and mattress-wrapping for crib
death prevention as having "overwhelming reliability".
In 2004 the results
of the New Zealand mattress-wrapping campaign were published
by Dr Sprott in the Journal of Nutritional &
Environmental Medicine (September 2004) 14(3), 221-232.
What does Dr Sprott say about orthodox crib death prevention
advice?
1) Don't smoke around your baby.
Recent history refutes any suggestion that smoking causes
crib death, says Dr Sprott. Smoking was
very common in Britain in the 1930s and 1940s, but crib
death was virtually non-existent. Smoking is prevalent in
present-day Russia and Japan, but the crib death rates are
low. No cause-and-effect relationship between smoking and
crib death has been established – they are socio-economic
parallels. Put another way, smoking is more common among
poorer people, and so is crib death. But it does not follow
that smoking is therefore a crib death risk factor.
2) 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. Adults' mattresses very frequently contain the
same chemical and fungi as babies' mattresses, and therefore
they can generate the same toxic gas/es. (For physiological
reasons adults are not put at risk by this gas generation in
mattresses.)
3) Sleep your baby with feet to the foot of the crib.
According to Dr Sprott, this practice affords no protection
whatsoever against crib death. Any area on an unwrapped
mattress where a baby sleeps is a potential source of toxic
gas, since that is the area which becomes warm and moist
(promoting the fungal activity which can cause gas
generation).
4) Sleep your baby face up.
Face-up sleeping is a partial preventive against crib
death. This is because the gases which cause crib death are
more dense than air. They diffuse away towards the floor,
and therefore a baby sleeping face up is less likely to
inhale them.
What about the theory that crib
death has a number of causes (the so-called "multifactorial"
theory)?
Clearly wrong, says Dr
Sprott. At this point he draws attention to a highly
significant piece of information about crib death: the crib
death risk rises from the first baby in a family to the
second, and rises again from the second baby to the third,
and so on. Babies of solo parents have a very high crib
death rate.
Dr Sprott explains that the rising rate of
crib death from one sibling to the next destroys every
medical and physiological theory for the cause of crib
death.
* For example, some
researchers think crib death is caused by babies
re-breathing their exhaled carbon dioxide. However, all
babies exhale a similar amount of CO2, regardless of whether
they are first, second or later babies. Therefore, the
rising rate of crib death from one sibling to the next
refutes the CO2 theory.
* Some researchers think crib death is related to the size
of babies' airways. However, for this theory to be valid
would require second babies' airways to be smaller than
those of first babies; and third babies' airways to be
smaller than those of second babies; and so on. Clearly,
therefore, the airways theory
is wrong, because the size of babies' airways is not related
to birth order.
So what is the explanation for the rising rate of crib death
from one sibling to the next? Crib death is caused by gases
generated in mattresses - and many parents re-use mattresses
from one baby to the next. If a mattress contains any of
the chemicals concerned and fungi have become established in
the mattress during previous use by another baby, generation
of toxic gas commences sooner and in greater volume when the
mattress is re-used.
This accounts for the rising rate of crib death from one
sibling to the next. It also accounts for the very high
crib death rate among babies of solo parents, who for
economic reasons are more likely to sleep their babies on
previously used mattresses which they have acquired
secondhand.
What about the claim that vaccination causes
crib death?
Vaccination is not the cause of crib death – however,
various studies
demonstrate that vaccination is a crib death risk factor.
The way in which vaccination increases the risk of crib
death is as follows:
Any circumstance which reduces the efficiency of a baby's
immune system, or which causes the baby to have a higher
than normal body temperature, will make the baby more likely
to succumb to the gaseous poisoning which causes crib
death. If the temperature in a baby’s crib increases by 3C
(say from 37C to 40C), the rate of gas generation increases
by 10 to 20 times.
Since, therefore,
vaccination can adversely affect the immune system
(temporarily) and increase body temperature (due to the
minor infection caused by the vaccine), it can make a baby
more susceptible to the cause of crib death.
However, if the baby's mattress is correctly wrapped for
crib death prevention and the correct bedding used, there is
no risk of crib death associated with vaccination, since the
wrapping prevents exposure to the gas/es concerned.
Therefore, the fact that a baby sleeping on a correctly
wrapped mattress has been recently vaccinated becomes
irrelevant as regards
crib death. The baby may experience the common physical
symptoms following vaccination, but
crib death will not ensue.
Could the wrapping of the mattress in a
BabeSafe cover cause a baby to sweat or overheat?
If sweating/overheating occurs on a BabeSafe-wrapped
mattress, it is not caused by the mattress wrap. As a
matter of thermodynamics, the layer of polyethylene
co-polymer which comprises the cover is so thin in relation
to the thickness of the mattress that it has no measurable
effect on the rate of heat transfer from the baby to the
mattress itself. Put another way, the overheating is not
caused by the BabeSafe cover.
If sweating/overheating occurs on a wrapped mattress, it is
the result of too much bedding on top of the baby, or too
much clothing on the baby, or overheating of the baby’s
room.
Babies have a GREATER
capacity than adults to retain their body heat, and LESS
capacity than adults to cool themselves down. Therefore
babies should be lightly dressed for sleep, and their
required bedding is less than an adult requires to keep
warm.
When sleeping in their
cribs:
(a) Babies should
sleep in loose baby gowns or pajamas.
(b) They should not sleep in any item of clothing
which encloses their feet (such as a jumpsuit or
socks) or which encloses their hands.
(c) They should
not wear bonnets or helmets, since much of their
body heat loss (which is essential) occurs via the
head.
(d) It is fine
to wrap a baby in a pure cotton diaper or other pure
cotton sheeting.
In
respect of bedding used on top of a baby:
(a) Babies should use no more than two pure wool or
pure cotton overblankets;
(b) In a
centrally-heated home, one pure wool or pure cotton
overblanket may be sufficient.
Note: The
overnight temperature in a baby's room should not
exceed 17-18 degrees Celsius.
