News

Appeal for Teesside baby volunteers for university study into infant sleeping

(21 June 2006)

Researchers from Durham University’s Queen’s Campus in Stockton are calling on parents of young babies from the Middlesbrough and Stockton area to take part in a study to help understand how dummies affect infant sleep behaviour.

“Recent research suggests that infant dummy use may protect babies from cot death/Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) but researchers don’t yet understand the protective mechanisms that dummies trigger when babies are sleeping,” explains Noemie Ram, one of the team conducting the study at the Durham University Parent-Infant Sleep Lab. “With this study we want to explore whether there is a relationship between dummy use and infant sleep behaviour. We are going to video babies who sleep with or without a dummy in order to find out more about what impact dummies have on babies’ sleep behaviour.” The team is looking for 20 families in the area to take part in the study during June and July. To take part babies need to be four months old or under and do not need to use a dummy. The study is completely unobtrusive and involves the baby being filmed whilst asleep over two nights. It’s hassle-free too as the team will come and set up the small video where the baby sleeps, show the parents how to use it and collect it two days later. Alternatively families can come to the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab for the filming. All video footage is coded to keep anonymity and will only be seen by the research team. To take part or for an informal chat parents should contact the Durham University Sleep Lab on: 0191 334 0261, e-mail: sleep.lab@dur.ac.uk or go to www.dur.ac.uk/sleep.lab. The study is being carried out throughout June and July but as places are limited parents should get in touch as soon as possible if they wish to take part. The team of researchers are all students on the Human Sciences (Anthropology) BSc programme at Durham University and are being supervised by Dr. Helen Ball, Director of the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab, Department of Anthropology and PhD student Kristin Klingaman. The team is Dawn Mee, from Middlesbrough, Carolyn O’Connor from Ipswich, Cheryll Otu from London and Noemie Ram from Haslenere in Surrey who have all received summer bursary funding from the Nuffield Foundation, Faculty of Social Sciences and Department of Anthropology at Durham University. For parents and babies who take part there will also be ‘thank you’ gift packs.