The US research paper, published in the British Medical Journal on 9 December, compared 185 infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) with 312 randomly selected healthy babies.
Researchers discovered that use of a dummy during sleep was associated with a 90 per cent reduced risk of SIDS compared with infants who did not use a dummy.
The drop in risk was found to be even greater when the baby was in an adverse sleep environment, such as sleeping on its front or side, sleeping with a mother who smoked, or sleeping on soft bedding.
The researchers suggest that the bulky handle on a dummy creates an air passage and prevents accidental suffocation when a baby's face becomes buried in bedding or covered with a blanket.
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