A Study in Cot Death

Sudden unexpected death in infants ("cot death"). Report of a collaborative study in northern Ireland.

INFANTS HAVE always been known to die suddenly and unexpectedly in bed, their deaths being formerly ascribed to 'mechanical suffocation' by clothing or by 'overlaying' of which there are presumptive examples from early literature (I Kings, 3:19). Early investigators (e.g. Templeman, 1892) stressed this danger and in Ireland the powerful temperance lobby obtained a clause (sect. 13) in the 1908 ...

Infanticide, filicide, and cot death.

The 'suppression' of unwanted babies seems to have been commonplace in antiquity. Early travellers to New Zealand, while remarking on how fond the Maoris were of their children and how well they looked after them, noted that infanticide was openly practised. The most favoured methods were squeezing the nose between the fingers, pressing the fontanel, or putting a wet cloth over the baby's head-...

Infanticide, filicide, and cot death

The 'suppression' of unwanted babies seems to have been commonplace in antiquity. Early travellers to New Zealand, while remarking on how fond the Maoris were of their children and how well they looked after them, noted that infanticide was openly practised. The most favoured methods were squeezing the nose between the fingers, pressing the fontanel, or putting a wet cloth over the baby's head-...

Respiratory viruses and cot death.

Respiratory viruses and histological appearances of the lung were studied prospectively in an unselected series of 104 children who died between 1 week and 2 years of age. Thirty-one of the cases were cot deaths. Seven of these showed evidence of active virus infection in the lower respiratory tract. Similar evidence was found in two children who died from known causes and did not have a severe...

Cot mattresses and sudden infant death syndrome.