INFANT’S DEATH

Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 August 1937, Page 5

INFANT’S DEATH

OVERLAIN IN BED. WELLINGTON, This Day. That children should not be taken into bed with their parents or nurse, that they should have separate accommodation, and that there should be an individual cot for each child, was emphasised ly the coroner, Mr E. Gilbertson, when he returned a verdict to-day that a three months old child, Alan Roy Miller, was accidentally .'asphyxiated by being overlain when in bed with his parents. The evidence of the father was that the baby was taken from his cot into bed, where he was breast-fed by the mother. He said he dropped off to sleep, and when he awakened he found the child lying in the same position as when being fed, but it rvas dead. It was mentioned by a doctor witness that there was provision in the Child Act of Great Britain for investigation in these cases. The Coroner: “Are there any penalties under the Act?’’ The doctor: “Yes, if there is evidence of neglect, as in the case of alcoholism. ’ ’ —(P.A.)