A Sudden Infant Death Syndrome researcher has detailed the significant developments in the field ahead of Red Nose Day.
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On August 12, the annual day will be raising funds for a $100,000 SIDS research grant.
University of Adelaide researcher Roger Byard said there had been dramatic progress over the last five to 10 years in knowledge around SIDS.
"We've been steadily advancing on identifying dangerous sleeping environments, dangerous cots and dangerous bedding, and letting parents know about the problems they might have.
"For example, if a cot has slats too wide, babies can get their heads caught.
"We've warned parents about having curtains near cots and gaps between the mattress and the cot on the sides."
Professor Byard said that he and his research team had been doing collaborative work with Harvard University.
"We've been looking at one of the chemicals in the back of the brain that controls the nervous function.
"There's this thing called substance P, and it is reduced in children that can't move their head and back as freely as other infants.
"Now we are looking at finding a genetic defect that may cause this, so there could be a screening test in the future.
"The holy grail really is to see if we can find something that we can test in living babies to say 'yes, they're at increased risks of SIDS based on our research at the moment'."
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With Red Nose Day coming up to raise awareness of SIDS, Professor Byard said the initiative was very important to him.
"I'm astounded at what Red Nose has achieved.
"This group came from bereaved parents with minimal government support, just fundraising and funding research, and they've done an amazing job."
"It's one of the major success stories in my professional life."
