ABSTRACT
Breastfeeding and infant–parent co-sleeping are part of the same adaptive complex designed by natural selection over millions of years of human evolution. This chapter reviews what is known about sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and, more specifically, the epidemiological studies that suggest that breastfeeding may be protective against the condition. The link between breastfeeding and SIDS has used dose–response definitions and appropriate recruitment strategies. A more recent epidemiological study conducted in New Zealand identified and pointed out that infants sleeping in the prone position were at significantly higher risk for SIDS, although sleeping position was not the only significant factor. Several studies indicate that breastfeeding does not guarantee protection from SIDS, only reduced risk, and the protective effect is not universally established. But calculating the relationship between breastfeeding practices and SIDS risks has been problematic because epidemiological studies do not differentiate between the various forms that breastfeeding can take.
