Saving a Baby's Life -- Preventing SIDS

One of the best alternative health newsletters in the U.S. is "Second Opinion" by an MD named Dr. William Campbell Douglass. In a newsletter near the end of 1997 he had an article discussing the cure for SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). The article was a real eye opener, and if you pay attention it just might save your baby's life.

I should also emphasize that this "cure" for SIDS is not generally known in the U.S., although since it has been broadcast in the United Kingdom SIDS deaths have dropped by 90%, so IT REALLY DOES WORK!

At first Dr. Douglass was skeptical of this "cure" because it sounded so implausible, but a reader of his sent him a large stack of scientific studies in the U.K. to study. After reading this and looking at the results Dr. Douglass became convinced and is now championing it to his readers.

I didn't know this, but the "SIDS epidemic" is a recent phenomenon; it only became the minor epidemic we now know after WWII. This is an important clue, but actually the problem and cure were discovered quite by accident. A British manufacturer of plastic mattresses asked Dr. B. S. Richardson (a consulting scientist and expert in materials degradation) to find out why they became hard and brittle with age. He easily found the answer. A common fungus (scopulariopsis brevicaulis) digests parts of the plastic, and a side effect of this is the production of three toxic nerve gases -- phosphine, arsine, and stibine. You don't know these gases are there because they are heavier than air, invisible, and odorless.

Thus, the most common cause of SIDS is basically a case of a small, weak human baby inhaling small amounts of these highly toxic nerve gases which end up suppressing their ability to breath. This also explains why the campaign in the US to put babies to sleep on their backs works, since with their noses/mouths farther away from the source of the heavier gases they inhale less of them than if they are face down on the mattress.

So, what does Dr. Douglass recommend to save your baby's life?

(1) Wrap baby mattresses with polythene sheeting (not PVC), and tape them to the bottom of the mattress. Do this in such a way that the toxic gasses can easily flow out of openings in the bottom of the mattress wrapping; you don't want them building up their concentration inside the wrapping.

(2) If you are shopping for a mattress, check the contents and only buy mattresses which do not contain any phosphorus, arsenic, or antimony. If these are not present, the toxic gases cannot be manufactured.