Heartbroken Mother Issues Warning After 7-Month-Old Son Died From SIDS

A mother whose seven-month-old son died suddenly in his sleep has issued a warning to other parents.

UK parents Andrea Balderson and her partner Andrew Alcock, tragically lost their baby boy, Deacon, last year. Despite his parents following all the parental guidance for newborns, Deacon died while sleeping.

An inquest heard that he was not suffocated by his bedding but died of natural causes. Initially, it was feared that he had been suffocated by his bedding because he liked to cuddle it while falling asleep.

Andrea said after the hearing: “I abided by all the safe sleeping advice and yet we still lost Deacon.”

She is now campaigning to make other parents aware of the risks of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Deacon was found by his mother on August 15 last year while sleeping on his back. Consultant pediatric pathologist, Dr. Marta Cohen, said that Deacon was a well- nourished and well cared for baby and cited his cause of death as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Andrea told the hearing how Deacon was a “smiley and happy infant” and had no trouble sleeping. She said: “We are fortunate to have a lot of support from family and friends. But there are other parents who do not have that and rely on health services. It was five weeks before they got in touch with me. I am happy with what the coroner said. It has been a stressful build-up to the inquest when you already know what the outcome would be. Our only question is ‘Why?’ and they can’t answer that.”

Talking about the current research and advice about SIDS, Andrea added: “Since the back to sleep campaign began more than 25 years ago, there has been a big decline in the number of deaths. There were 2,000 a year but now there are just over 200. Although putting babies to sleep on their tummy has been proved to be a contributing factor to many deaths, researchers believe that there are likely to be currently undiscovered causes as well.”