We're concerned about babies!
Researching the Cause of SIDS.
Contrary to prevalent belief, SIDS can be prevented.
Mattress-Wrapping has prevented SIDS successfully since 1996. So, mattress-wrapping theory holds certain keys to the truth. We are seeking to unpack those truths.
News Items:
We have have entrusted our literature research results over to competent others for review. We are thankful for the few that have responded. We feel we will soon have something ready for publication.
Consider financially supporting our part in SIDS Research by scrolling down to just below our Mission / Vision statements.
We are giving referrals to BabeSafe® SIDS wrap distributors by referring you to the BabeSafe manufacturer's How to Order page. There is the list of the active BabeSafe distributors. BabeSafe® mattress covers against SIDS are available from the USA.
We receive no financial compensation for making referrals, just the satisfaction we are protecting babies from SIDS.
Our Mattress-Wrapping Details page shares about the mattress-wrapping method to prevent SIDS.
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So, you ask:
"Why Has It Taken So Long For The Solution To SIDS To Be Discovered?"
The two scientists, Barry Richardson in the UK and Dr. TJ Sprott in NZ that realized the suspected cause for SIDS, felt that knowing its simple truth would be enough and everyone would be convinced to protect their babies by wrapping their mattresses.
Mr. Richardson first tried to protect the concept behind Mattress-Wrapping so it could be published in medical journals. But the media was very aggressive to publish the reason behind cot death (SIDS). Eventually he allowed the TV stations in the UK to help investigate the cause of SIDS.
But the TV stations stopped short with just sharing the cause and did not mount a long-term promotion on how to prevent SIDS with the mattress-wrapping method. The two TV programs that were aired, instilled much fear into parents, by sharing that the cribs, playpens and bassinets where they were sleeping their babies were "unsafe". There were 60,000 worried callers in the 24 hours after the first show (1).
In actuality, and it is still known today that even without mattress-wrapping, the baby's bassinet, playpen and crib are the safest place for them to sleep compared to other places in the home (2).
The UK governmental agencies that did the follow up research on the Toxic Gas Theory cause of SIDS, appeared to be more interested in keeping babies in their cribs, bassinets and playpens than finding the cause of why SIDS was happening (3).
So the UK research was not completely thorough and did not collaborate fully with Mr. Richardson (4), the original researcher with his "pet theory", as it was described in the editorial section (5) of the same Lancet journal where the UK researchers published their findings following up on Richardson's work (6).
The Richardson Hypothesis, as it was known then, was reported in 1995 in The Lancet to be "unsupported" by their agency's findings (6). Yet Dr. Sprott described in his 1996 book "The Cot Death Cover-Up?" (4) the multiple errors committed in the UK research for that December Lancet article.
In reading the published report of the UK agency research, their greatest error was to sterilize both the mattress samples and the controls prior to testing to find whether Richardson's samples contained the certain fungus Richardson had found on the mattresses in his lab (6).
These agencies and those supporting mattress-wrapping did not get along with each other (7). The scientific research, such as that done by Warnock, et al. (6), was claimed to fully refute the Hypothesis and effectively closed any further scientific research on it (8).
This author has found further reasons why mattress-wrapping works that well merit investigation.
In New Zealand there has been no SIDS deaths on a BabeSafe® properly wrapped mattress since its inception in 1996 (9).
We want to prove to the scientific and medical community by peer-reviewed publication that this Richardson Hypothesis is valid.
We are Researching the Cause of SIDS.
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What then is the Toxic Gas Theory of SIDS / Richardson Hypothesis?
It means that SIDS can likely occur if all three [or four - PRK] of these exist together:
1. the elements phosphorous (P), arsenic (As), and/or antimony (Sb) are present in the baby’s mattress;
2. the common household fungus is present and
3. then there is an increase in temperature, from body heat or other heat sources.
[4. The baby is in the SIDS vulnerable time period in their life between 2 and 4 months, with 90% of the cases being before 6 months of age (10). ]
These three simultaneous conditions cause the fungus to grow, metabolizing compounds containing the elements, to create nerve gases, that stop the baby's respiratory and cardiac function, to make SIDS occur.
Especially important for prevention is keeping the chemical elements P, As and Sb, in mattresses and bedding, away from your baby and minimizing sources of body heat.
Sleep your baby in a wrapped: bassinet, co-sleeper, Pack ‘N Play (or other playpen) or crib. Never sleep your baby on a sofa, couch or recliner (up to 66.9x the risk) (10).
The standard SIDS precautions still are valid and apply to reducing SIDS. You must sleep your baby Alone, on their Back and in a Crib, in a sleeping situation designed specifically for babies but just that it is wrapped with a BabeSafe® mattress cover. Use a firm mattress and no soft bedding.
The Richardson Hypothesis can be laid over the research findings on SIDS that have been discovered over the years to realize that the Triple-Risk Model of SIDS (11) has validity even if toxic gases are the cause of SIDS.
The key to mattress-wrapping is to use a BabeSafe® mattress cover over your baby’s mattress and only 100% pure cotton bedding, with no padding or quilting.
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Barb Knoll, CNM ret.
midwife
I am a Certified Nurse Midwife with 43 years in Nursing of which 24 have been in Midwifery. Having delivered over 1,800 babies, I know the desire of every parent to protect their infants. Those who know what SIDS is (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome — also known as Cot Death in New Zealand) it leaves much fear in their hearts as they put their babies down to sleep.
Many mothers have told me their loss of sleep during the first few months after delivery was more due to their frequent checking to see if the baby was still breathing, rather than the baby crying and waking them up. I am convinced that mattress-wrapping with the BabeSafe® mattress covers protects babies from SIDS.
In the course of my practice I have seen the sad deaths of babies who were sleeping on unwrapped mattresses; yet in New Zealand there have been no reported SIDS deaths among the more than 245,000+ babies who have slept on mattresses wrapped with BabeSafe® mattress covers and using the specified bedding for a wrapped mattress, 100% cotton with no padding.
I became a BabeSafe distributor in December of 2002 after the son of one of our L&D nurses died of SIDS. Patrick was 6½ months old. He was in daycare when it happened, and it devastated everyone involved. I found an article about the work of Dr. Sprott in New Zealand shortly after this happened and the rest is history. The effectiveness of the covers impressed me. A photo of Patrick is on our Donations page and sketched in our logo.
In 2004 we started online with Baby Mattress Covers. In 2008 we incorporated into Baby Mattress Covers, LLC. From November 2018 to February 2019 we took a Sabbatical from selling the covers. It was then that we decided to do USA research on the mattress-wrapping method. We no longer have any financial relationship to the sale of BabeSafe® mattress covers. We can still refer you to where you can get a cover.
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chemist
One thing that you need to know about my husband Paul is that he is extremely dedicated to whatever he commits himself to.
He graduated from Hope College in Holland, MI with a double major in German and Chemistry. He held different jobs for a while but settled in at an analytical food testing laboratory for 7 years. Because he wanted to improve himself in the field of Chemistry, he went to graduate school at the age of 48 and got his Masters in Chemistry. His focus areas were Organic Chemistry, Toxicology and Analytical Chemistry, at Western Michigan University. He wrote his thesis on DNA mutations, smoking and bladder cancer. He belongs to the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
Paul took over our infant BabeSafe® mattress cover business as Volunteer Manager in January 2013. Up until then he was helping me with the website and keeping things straight. We stopped sales of BabeSafe® covers on November 1st, 2018.
I look forward to how Paul will continue supporting mattress-wrapping through this website and with SIDS prevention research by the cooperation with other SIDS researchers.
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(1) Chapter 9 - The Television Producer. The Cot Death Cover-Up?. Jim Sprott. Penguin Books. 1996 pp. 80-83
(2) AAP TASK FORCE ON SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME. SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2016 Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment. Pediatrics. 2016; 138(5):e20162938. Expanded Supplemental Technical Report: https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/138/5/e20162940.full.pdf
(3) The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths. Response from FSID to final report of the government appointed Expert Group to Investigate Cot Death Theories: Toxic Gas Hypothesis. Press release. https://web.archive.org/web/20001026033455/http:/www.sids.org.uk/fsid/limerick.htm Published 1998. Accessed December 5, 2019.
(4) Chapter 12 - For The Technically Minded. The Cot Death Cover-Up?. ibid. pp. 113-119
(5) EDITORIAL -- SIDS theory : from hype to reality. The Lancet. Dec. 9, 1995; Vol. 346 Nbr. 8989 p. 1503
(6) Toxic gas generation from plastic mattresses and sudden infant death syndrome. The Lancet. Warnock, et al. Dec. 9, 1995; ibid. pp. 1516-1520
(7) Chapter 11 - The British Government Acts. ibid. pp. 100-101.
(8) The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths. Response from FSID to final report of the government appointed Expert Group to Investigate Cot Death Theories: Toxic Gas Hypothesis. Press release. Published 1998. Accessed December 5, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20001026033455/http:/www.sids.org.uk/fsid/limerick.htm
(9) Sprott A, TJ Sprott Ltd. Results of the New Zealand mattress-wrapping programme for crib-death (SIDS) prevention. 2017:1.
(10) Carlin RF, Moon RY. Risk factors, protective factors, and current recommendations to reduce sudden infant death syndrome a review. JAMA Pediatr. 2017;171(2):175-180.
(11) Spinelli J, Collins-Praino L, Van Den Heuvel C, Byard RW. Evolution and significance of the triple risk model in sudden infant death syndrome. J Paediatr Child Health. 2017;53(2):112-115. doi:10.1111/jpc.13429
(12) Chapter 13 - Some Answers. ibid. p. 132
(13) Sudden infant death syndrome. The Lancet. Moon, et al. November 3, 2007; Vol. 370 pp. 1578-1587
(14) Chapter 12 - For The Technically Minded / Chapter 14 - When You Can't Answer, Fudge It. ibid. pp. 117 / 165
(15) Chapter 4- Some Basic Chemistry. ibid. pp. 35-36
(16) O’Neil MJ, Smith A, Heckelman PE. 7424. Phosphine. In: The Merck Index. 13th ed. Merck & Co., Inc.; 2001:1315-1316.
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At Baby Mattress Covers, LLC we have been convinced that using the New Zealand SIDS prevention method described on this website will protect a baby from SIDS. We are keeping an open mind to new aspects that come to light. We want, most of all, that the medical and scientific community will be convinced of the solution for the SIDS problem.
Fully stopping SIDS..., it sounds to be totally incomprehensible doesn’t it. But since 1996 in New Zealand there has not been a single SIDS death on a BabeSafe® wrapped mattress when the specified bedding, of 100% cotton bedding with no padding fill, has been used. Worldwide there have not been any SIDS deaths reported on a BabeSafe® wrapped mattress when the Bedding Instructions have been followed. With more than 245,000 successful users in New Zealand..., That's No SIDS when using the specified bedding. (9)
A Nutshell Summary of Mattress-Wrapping Against SIDS:
â—½ Put a BabeSafe® mattress cover gas barrier between your baby and their mattress.
â—½ Use 100% cotton single-layer bedding under and over your baby. Do not use polyester, acrylic or Rayon bedding.
We are Researching the Cause of SIDS.
Read of our plans when you Donate.
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Operated by: Baby Mattress Covers, LLC
Office Location:
614 Lynn Drive, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49103-1027 USA
Hours: EST (UTC -5:00)
Mon, Tues, Thurs:
9:30 am to 8:00 pm
Wed: 9:30 am to 1:00 pm
Fri: 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
Sat: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Sunday: Closed
