A Post at Last:

Ahhh, updates. There has been so much going on that I don't even know where to begin! I have been finding it hard to make time for updates (or computer time in general), but tonight my darling E decided to take a two-hour break from sleeping, and now mommy is awake even though he has peacefully returned to dreamland. First of all, a topic of interest to all parents that I've been trying to research: SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). While reading the book, The Truth About Children's Health, I read, for the first time, about the "toxic gas theory". Basically, chemicals in the flame retardents on baby mattresses (arsenic, phosphorous, and antimony) react with a fungus S. Brevicaulis that commonly grows in mattresses, and when brought to blood/body temperature creates what is essentially a toxic nerve gas (either phosphine, arsine, or stibine). This theory asserts that the reason the risk of SIDS essentially disappears after twelve months is because babies can usually stand by this age: the gas gives them a headache, they wake up, and stand up. This would also explain why the Back to Sleep Campaign was so successful in lowering SIDS death rates, but the death rate has now leveled off. It would also explain why they now say that using a fan in the room lowers the incidents of SIDS. It also explains why the risk of SIDS increases with each child (second children are more at risk than first children, third more at risk than second, etc..), because parents typically save and reuse the baby mattress, and the fungus is going to be more prevelant in an older mattress. But what I find to be the most compelling is this: in the early '90's, a chemist named T.J. Sprott advised the government of New Zealand that they begin recommending all infants sleep on mattresses wrapped in a food-grade polypropylene cover. New Zealand took the advise, and at the time of the writing of The Truth About Children's Health, of the more than 100,000 babies who slept on wrapped mattresses, not a single one died of SIDS (it has been estimated now that more than 200,000 babies have slept on wrapped mattresses...still no SIDS deaths). This was at a time when the SIDS death rate in New Zealand was just over 1 per 1,000 live births, so there should have been around 100 SIDS deaths. But there weren't. A British study found no link between baby mattresses and SIDS, but a German study confirmed the toxic gas theory. Go figure. I can't find how the studies were controlled, whether they were using used or new mattresses, etc, so I guess it comes down to who you think is smarter: Germans or Brtis. (just kidding!) It is important to note that babies have died from SIDS in their carseats, swings, while bedsharing on the parents' mattress, and on sofas....ALL of these things are treated with the same chemicals as baby mattresses, and all of them are subject to the growth of the same fungus. I can recall from my childhood stories of a babies who died mysteriously in their swings or carseats.
A note about vaccinations: it has been found that more than half of all SIDS babies had been recently vaccinated. While this doesn't conclude causation, it does provide a clue: vaccinations typically make babies run a fever, with a peak body temperature 24-48 hours after vaccination. An elevated body temperature would heat the mattress, cause the molecules to move faster, turn into gas, and rise at a higher rate, creating a larger dose of nerve gas. This peaks my interest about the link between autism and vaccinations as well. How many times have we heard a devastated parent report that their beautiful, healthy baby was vaccinated, went to sleep feverish, slept for hours, and when they woke up, the parent knew that "something was wrong"? While I am not convinced that vaccinations themselves cause autism, too many parents can trace their child's sudden altered behavior and delayed development back to the day of vaccination for there to not be some kind of correlation. I learned from reading Freakonomics that the truth is often right in front of us, and not always what it seems.
The last thing to talk about on this topic is the mattress cover that the New Zealand government now recommends. It is called the BabeSafe mattress cover, and yes, I bought one. It cost me $40, I bought it directly from New Zealand, and shipping was free. Here is the website through which I bought mine:
Eve's Best , and here is Eve's blog about SIDS preventions where you can learn more about the Toxic Gas Theory. I know, even after you read everything, you'll probably still have a little voice in the back of your mind that says, "is all this for real? Is someone just trying to make money off of parent's fear and others' unspeakable misfortune?" That little voice is still in my head, even as my little E sleep peacefully on his wrapped mattress. And the conclusion I have come to is this: maybe, but I don't care. I can't find anything illogical about the toxic gas theory. It just makes sense to me. I feel the cover IS a tad pricey, but once I received it, I can tell you that this is a very high quality cover: very thick and durable. Also, once it is on the mattress properly, it makes no noise when E rolls over on it, and I can't even tell it's on there. In fact, with the "under blanket" that is recommended you use with it (I use a 100% cotton bath towel), I think the mattress is now more comfortable for E. I can't find a reason not to use it. And if I have blown forty bucks, well, then I have. But I sleep better knowing E sleeps on a wrapped mattress, and sometimes the placebo is the best painkiller.
If you are wary that anything could combine to produce a deadly gas, I suggest that you Google what happens when you mix bleach and ammonia, two common household cleaning agents (do NOT attempt to mix them for any reason! I'll save you the trouble of actually Googling: it's deadly!)

I just want to add that T.J. Sprott stressed the importance of using only 100% cotton bedding...no synthetic fibers such as polyester.
Finally, I leave you with one website that I highly recommend you read. It puts this whole debate in a much clearer, more concise manner than I ever could:
Baby's Bedding: Is it Creating Toxic Nerve Gas?