Thermoregulation and cot death

Interactions between infant care practices and physiological development in Asian infants

Asian infants are less likely to suffer cot death despite apparently higher prevalence of some risk factors. This paper compares the development of night time body temperature patterns in a small sample of Asian babies with the pattern already established for white infants, where babies who develop an adult-like night time temperature pattern later than usual share characteristics with victims of SIDS. The Asian infants had similar body temperature patterns to whites, but tended to develop the adult-like pattern later, not earlier as might have been expected. More Asian infants than white in our sample slept in the parental bed, and, before the adult-like body temperature patterns appeared, co-sleeping infants had higher body temperatures than those in their own cots. Asian infants slept in significantly warmer rooms than whites, but under similar amounts of bedding. These studies do not therefore reveal any physiological difference between Asians and whites which might account for low vulnerability to cot death, indeed, if anything the reverse.