The Department of Health is backing the recommendation in a joint guidewith the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID).
Dr Richard Wilson, FSID trustee and an honorary consultant paediatricianin Kingston, London, said, 'We don't know why this works, but we havefairly good evidence that it does.' He added that the finding was 'asurprise'.
The advice follows the work of a research group set up by the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics, which combined the results of internationalstudies on cot death and concluded that overall, the incidence of SuddenInfant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was halved by dummy use.
The studies found that children settled to sleep with a dummy - even fora nap during the day - are less likely to die from SIDS.
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