As a junior doctor in the late 1980s, working in paediatrics, nothing compared to the trauma of a young couple rushing into the Emergency Department with a lifeless baby in their arms. A baby that had been laid in their cot hours earlier, healthy and well, who never woke up again.

The numbers of cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in Ireland has “increased significantly”, in recent years according to data from the National Paediatric Mortality Register (NPMR) report.

Exactly why it is happening is not entirely clear. Possibilities include reduced awareness, less adherence to safer sleeping guidelines, or gaps in targeted prevention measures.

Cot death, or SIDS, is the sudden and unexpected death of a baby who seems healthy during sleep. It can happen anywhere a baby is sleeping including a cot, pram, bed, car seat or baby seat. It is one of the main causes of death in babies ages 4 weeks to 12 months. It is most common between 2-4 months but can also happen to older babies.

In the 1980s, when I was an overworked senior house officer in CUH, there were up to 140 SIDS death a year (2.2 per 1,000 live births). In the intervening decades, cases plummeted aligned with risk reduction campaigns.

However, that decline stalled then reversed in 2019. From a low of just 12 deaths (0.2 per 1,000 live births) the figure more than doubled to 25 (0.46 per 1,000 live births) by 2023 – just four years later. The 25 SIDS deaths in 2023 was the highest number recorded since 2008 and repositions SIDS as the leading cause of death in post-neonatal infants - more than one month and less than one year.

“This concerning........

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