Do Breathable Mattresses Help Prevent SIDS?

Age Groups

Topics

I’m a soon-to-be first-time mom, and I’m currently losing sleep over SIDS. I was wondering if “breathable” mattresses such as the Newton baby mattress are actually worth it/decrease the risk of SIDS.
—Anonymous

SIDS is incredibly scary. The idea of losing your child, in a random and unpredictable way, is difficult to even contemplate as a new or expecting parent. This is to say — I hear you, and I’ve been there too.

Unfortunately, this fear makes us susceptible to marketing. There is a lot of marketing around SIDS prevention — socks, monitors, mattresses — all of which promises safety. For the most part, we do not have any evidence that any of these, including the mattresses, work. What we do know about SIDS prevention is that there is strong evidence for putting an infant to sleep on their back, some evidence for use of a pacifier, and that infants should not be surrounded by covers, blankets, or pillows.

When we look beyond this, to particular technologies, it is not plausible to get good data on the relationship between technology use and SIDS risk. This is because SIDS is rare, and any possible impacts would be extremely small, so you’d need an enormously large sample size. Arguments in favor of these various technologies rely on logic, not data.

Which brings us to the breathable mattress. The logic here is that if the mattress is more breathable, then less carbon dioxide will develop, making the baby less susceptible to suffocation. However, evidence from testing indicates that mattress permeability isn’t actually associated with CO₂. Other studies have shown the same. Of course, these data do not prove that the mattress doesn’t reduce SIDS, but they suggest that the logic that would support that relationship isn’t there.

I wish I had a better way to alleviate your fears, but spending money on this isn’t going to help.