Mum Warns About Risk Of Soft Toys In Toddlers' Beds After 18-Month-Old Daughter Died

A mother has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the risk posed by soft toys in toddlers’ beds after her 18-month-old daughter suffocated and died.

Dexy Leigh Walsh, 23, from Dundee, had packed teddies down the side of her daughter Connie’s bed to stop her falling down a gap. She had placed one big teddy on top of the smaller ones when she put her daughter to bed on 5 March 2018.

“She went under the massive teddy and fell asleep with the angels,” Walsh wrote on her Facebook campaign page. “All I think about now is what if I had just left it empty? She would still be here, maybe with just a small bump on her head. I want every parent to see and be aware of this.”

Walsh urged parents to move everything off their toddler’s beds and away from the sides. “I really hope my little princess’ tragic story can save someone else baby’s life,” she wrote. “She had a bed guard at one side and the smallest gap from her wall to her bed and that’s where I had put all her teddies – my biggest regret in life.”

National charity The Lullaby Trust, which works to prevent unexpected infant deaths, has supported Walsh’s warning to parents urging that young children’s sleep spaces should always be free of additional sleep products.

“The Lullaby Trust would like to extend its condolences to the family at this difficult time,” a spokesperson told HuffPost UK. “We advise that a baby’s sleeping space is kept as clear as possible, with no pillows, duvets, soft toys or cot bumpers. Unnecessary items in a cot can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) if a baby’s head becomes covered. Items such as soft toys and cot bumpers can also increase the risk of accidents.

“Our safer sleep advice relating to reducing the risk of SIDS is relevant for babies under 12 months, after this age it is down to parental choice, but we are aware that some parents continue to follow safer sleep guidance after 12 months.”

To see Walsh’s Facebook awareness campaign, visit Connie Rose Awareness.

Before You Go

Baby Sleep Tricks

The Guide Book(01 of04)

The Gentle Sleep Solution: The Naturally Nurturing Way To Help Your Baby To Sleep offers a gentle alternative to controlled crying methods. Drawing on her experience as a psychologist, CBT therapist and mother of four, Shallow teaches parents, firstly, how to identify the underlying reason for their baby's troubled sleeping by reading their behaviour, and, secondly, how to respond in ways that will help to reduce their anxiety and allow them to fall asleep independently. (credit:Jupiterimages via Getty Images)

The Bedtime Story Book(02 of04)

Swedish behavioural psychologist and linguist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin spent more than three years perfecting his bestselling sleep-inducing bedtime story The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep. Using psychological and positive reinforcement techniques to help little ones to relax, focus and eventually drift off, he describes the story as “the verbal equivalent of rocking a baby to sleep.” (credit:Penguin Random House)

The Smartphone App(03 of04)

The Sound Sleeper app, gives you a choice of sounds for lulling your baby to sleep according to her personal preferences – whether that’s the rhythm of the womb, a gentle ‘shhh’ or the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It also ‘listens’ for your baby and starts playing the sound you’ve chosen as soon as it hears a whimper. You can even track your baby’s sleep and generate graphs to help you learn and analyse your baby’s sleep patterns. (credit:Layland Masuda via Getty Images)

The Night Light(04 of04)

The Sleepy Baby™ Biological LED Lamp light bulb works by filtering out the stimulating blue light spectrum that can inhibit your baby’s production of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Although it provides adequate light for bedtime stories, nappy changes and night-time feeds, your baby’s brain registers the light as darkness, making it easier for them to fall back asleep. (credit:Lighting Science)