Parental obesity and the risk of sudden unexpected infant death.

Aim: To clarify the possible role of accidental asphyxiation/suffocation for infants in shared sleeping situations.

Methods: As it has recently been shown that there is an association between maternal obesity and sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) an index was calculated by dividing parental body mass index (BMI) by the shared sleeping surface area.

Results: A much higher index was derived for an obese individual on a narrow sleeping area such as a sofa (50) compared to a thin adult on a queen-sized mattress (5).

Conclusion: The index may be a way of semi-quantitating high, and low, risk shared sleeping situations.