Much-loved Dexter is remembered every Christmas with a new tree decoration
through the same as you,” she appealed.
“Nothing is going to take that pain away. I definitely do not think we would have got through it without the Scottish Cot Death Trust.”
She urged: “Keep talking about your baby. I feel people think they cannot say our baby’s name because it might upset us, but when they do say his name, it makes us happy to hear it.”
It took almost a year before the couple received conclusive confirmation that Dexter’s life had been lost to cot death – a year during which Jennifer feared her son had suffocated.
“I was at home myself with the boys when it happened, and I blamed myself. I thought that if Iain had been here, this probably would not have happened,” said Jennifer, whose son’s blankets and teddies from his cot were returned to her almost a year after his passing.
“For an entire year, I was blaming myself because I thought I had done something. I feel that less so, now. But I still think that if I’d done something differently, would there have been a different outcome? I will never know.”
Although 10 years have passed since the loss of baby Dexter Stratton, the Scottish Cot Death Trust continues to keep his name alive at Christmas time.
Scottish Cot Death Trust is the only charity in Scotland dedicated to the sudden unexpected death of babies and young children. It makes a difference by aiming to find answers through funding research, providing support for bereaved families, and educating the public and professionals about sudden unexpected death in infants (SUDI).
SUDI is very rare, but all babies are potentially at risk. In Scotland each year, there are on average 53,000 live births and around 40 sudden unexpected deaths in infants.
Every festive season, families like the Strattons receive a new decoration to hang on their tree from the Scottish Cot Death Trust in memory their little one who’s been lost to cot death.
Said Dexter’s mum, Jennifer: “For all those babies who have passed, the Scottish Cot Death Trust remembers every one of their names. It is so lovely that someone outside of the family is remembering Dexter every single year. It shows just how special the Scottish Cot Death Trust really are.”
This month the charity is running a 12 Days of Hope campaign, in which it shares 12 stories on social media in a bid to raise funds to support bereaved families across Scotland, communicate Safe Sleep messages and fund research into causes of SUDI to stop further deaths.