Does cot death have any medical or physiological cause?
No. For more information on this topic click on the sidebar heading Cot death: no medical cause. Autopsies have shown that cot death babies frequently have bacterial and fungal infections in their throats and lungs. Why is this? The conditions in the baby’s bedding which favoured the growth of fungi generating toxic gases would also have favoured the growth of other micro-organisms, which the baby has then breathed in. Many of these other micro-organisms would be harmless, but they would still be noticeable at autopsy. Why aren’t there many cot deaths among babies less than one month old? A significant number of babies sleep on new mattresses, and it takes around one month for fungi capable of gas generation to become established in a mattress. However, a baby less than one month old can die of cot death if he or she is placed on a mattress which has recently been used by another baby and is already capable of generating toxic gas. Why do relatively few cot deaths occur among babies ov
