SIDS & mattress gases

Factual Questions
1

With a little one on the way the missus and I’ve been spending some time googling various topics, one of the things we came across was a host of websites claiming all SIDS is caused by gases from the mattress, then furthering that claim by saying there have been no SIDS deaths in New Zealand since they banned the kind of mattress that supposedly releases these gases.

But then I find a couple websites that claim New Zealand actually has a higher SIDS rate than other developed countries.

My instinct is that the gases link is tenuous at best (and that’s being generous) and that if mattresses were the cause of SIDS then the gub’ment would have banned them long ago. I think those websites claiming a special mattress is needed are horseshit.

So what’s the Straight Dope here?

2

The link between mattresses and SIDS is disputed, and many studies have found no link (PDF). Reductions in SIDS in NZ are more likely to be due to a high-profile public education campaign from the late 90s on focusing on infants sleeping on their backs alone in a cot in a non-smoking household (Back To Sleep). The major discrepancies between Pakeha and Polynesian death rates from SIDS that research shows almost certainly relate to higher smoking rates, cultural factors, and poverty amongst polynesian groups in New Zealand.

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