Air date: July 25, 2010

Host: Barbara Lewis

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Interview: Lorna Benson, reporter
Minnesota Public Radio

It has long been thought that healthy babies who die suddenly and unexpectedly during sleep are victims of a mysterious condition called SIDS -- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

But what researchers in Minnesota and around the country are beginning to find is that some of these SIDS deaths - perhaps even a good share of them - may be caused by problems that occur when babies sleep in the same bed as their parents.

So rather than a mystery, the deaths may be caused by a parent rolling over on the baby or somehow blocking the baby's airway.

Lorna Benson of Minnesota Public Radio reports.

Additional Resources:

• Read more about the pros and cons of co-sleeping at Kidshealth.org.
• A British study also found co-sleeping to correlate with infant deaths.