Baby boy ‘suffocated to death after being left alone on play mat while his parents slept’
A BABY boy suffocated to death after being left alone on a play mat while his parents slept, an inquest heard.
Leonidas Ramsden was placed on his back on the mat, which had been rested on his mum and dad's mattress.
His mum Chloe, 21, asked partner Dudley to check in on the four-month-old and place him in his Moses basket as she was unwell.
The inquest heard the dad checked on him at 3am but did not want to disturb the baby by moving him.
He then also fell asleep on the sofa at the family home in Buckfastleigh, Devon, in April 2022.
The court heard Chloe went to check on Leonidas at around 6am and found the tot face down on the mat and unresponsive.
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She told the hearing: "It was like a play mat but I just used it as extra comfort while feeding.
"I knew it was not a safe sleeping scenario and I never left him unattended in it."
The court heard the mat had a safety warning on it that read babies and toddlers should not be left unsupervised.
Det Con Donna Tullock said: "We were told it was a sleeping pod but it appeared more like the underneath of a play mat and it did have a warning label on it reading 'never leave a child under three unattended while using this toy', so it was not an official sleeping pod."
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A post mortem was unable to establish a cause of death but medics could not exclude sudden unexplained death in infancy (SUDI).
Area coroner for Devon, Alison Longhorn, said the baby may have suffocated on the mat.
Recording a narrative conclusion, she added: "Leonidas died having been found in a face down sleeping position while sleeping on a mat.
"It is likely this position restricted his ability to breathe freely and he was asphyxiated."
