MORE than half of cot [...].

MORE than half of cot deaths happen when a baby is sleeping with a parent, a study has revealed.

Researchers said this could be linked to the baby's parent having been drinking or taking drugs.

Despite a drop in the rate of cot death in the UK since the early 1990s, experts are advising parents to avoid dangerous co-sleeping arrangements to help reduce these deaths even further. A team of researchers at the Bristol and Warwick universities studied all unexpected infant deaths - aged from birth to two - in the South West of England from January 2003 to December 2006. To investigate a possible link between cot death and socio-economic deprivation, they compared these deaths with a control group at 'high risk' - young, socially deprived mothers who smoked - as well as a randomly selected control group.

The parents were interviewed shortly after the death and information was collected on alcohol and drug use.

Of the 80 cot deaths, more than half occurred while cosleeping, compared to onefifth co-sleeping rate among both control groups. Risk may be explained by the combination of parental alcohol or drug use prior to co-sleeping and the high proportion of co-sleeping deaths on a sofa, say the authors.