Experts issued a warning that the findings suggested that babies are the safest when sleeping in their cots beside their parents’ bed.

Some of the children died when their parents fell asleep carelessly beside them on a sofa.

Researchers found that parents say that though they had been warned about the dangers of sleeping beside their babies in a bed, no other warnings has been issued about other similar places in the house.

Cot deaths are also more likely when the babies slept on a pillow and if their parents took drugs as suggested by a study published online by the British Medical Journal.

Researchers observed 80 such deaths in the South West of England over three years.

There has been a reduction in the number of cot deaths but still 300 babies died in a year this way.

More danger between sleeping with a baby and cot death may also be related to alcohol or drug use as found during the research.

Prof Peter Fleming, from Bristol University, who led the study, said that many parents wake up at night to feed their baby on a sofa or an armchair due to the belief that it might be safer than feeding them in bed.

He said, "It is really important that parents should not fall asleep with their baby on a sofa as it is very, very dangerous, it is 25 times more risky than having a baby in bed with you".