A cot is the right place for a baby to sleep, say experts

Experts say that the practice of having young babies in adult beds is growing - as is the death toll.

Fewer than one in 100,000 babies who sleep in cots dies by suffocation, compared with 25.5 per 100,000 of those who sleep in adult beds.

Lead researcher Dr James Kemp, from St Louis University, said sharing a bed with a baby was a "terrible idea".

The study was published in the US journal Pediatrics, and looked at death rates among babies under eight months of age between 1995 and 1998.

Sleeping with a baby in an adult bed has become more popular in recent years - a survey in the US suggests that more than one in eight babies sleep this way.

In the UK, surveys between 1996 and 2002 found that up to half of all sudden infant deaths happened while the baby was sharing a bed with a parent.

The numbers are gigantic, much higher than I had thought. Dr James Kemp, St Louis University School of Medicine

Experts say that, under eight months of age, infants lack the ability to roll or crawl away from trouble should they become trapped under a quilt, blanket, or pillow, or trapped between the bed and the wall.

It is particularly risky to share a bed with a baby if a parent has drunk alcohol, taken recreational drugs, or is on medication that could make him or her drowsy.

In these circumstances, it is possible that the parent could roll over onto the baby and remain unaware of their presence.

'Hazardous'

The 40 times increased risk surprised even Dr Kemp.

He said: "The numbers are gigantic, much higher than I had thought.

"Granted, you want to be close to your baby at night-time. But we don't think babies should be in adult beds.

"It is difficult to control potentially hazardous arrangements causing suffocation - infant deaths diagnosed as suffocation in adult beds and on sofas are being increasingly reported in the US while suffocation deaths in cribs are declining.

"A sleeping baby belongs in a crib or other approved baby bed."

A spokesman for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths said: "Parents and professionals need to be more aware that bedsharing increases the risk of death if either parent is a smoker, has drunk alcohol or taken drugs or medication that makes them sleepy, or are just extremely tired.