Harsha/Newindpress

Mangalore, Sep 18: When Sanskrit lecturer in Canara College G N Bhat became a proud grandfather, the toughest task he faced was finding a cradle.

It was not the wide choice that baffled him. ‘‘In fact, there is no choice at all. You take home the cradle you chance upon,’’ he explains. Despite a boom in babies, sale of cradles in city has dipped prompting its removal from shelves in most shops selling surgical appliances.

K N Hebbar of Hebbar Surgical Inc, which manufactures custom-built cradles, says he receives supply orders for cradles only from hospitals. ‘‘Cradles are not immediately available across the counter. You will have to book them in advance,’’ says a representative of ACE Surgicals in Balmatta.

The dip in sales of cradles is being blamed on ‘rooming-in’ practice, a rage among young parents. City-based paediatricians are backing such parents by discouraging cradles and encouraging rooming-in, where the babies are with their mothers.

When the mother and her infant share the same cot, the physical contact keeps baby warm and helps mother secrete more milk. ‘‘More breast milk means baby is healthy and diseases are absent,’’ says eminent paediatrician Dr Shantaram Baliga.

Thus SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a leading case of death among infants is common in western countries. ‘‘Though SIDS remains unpredictable, it is suspected to be caused from the prone position of a sleeping baby,’’ Dr Baliga says.

If parents insist on a cradle, we relent and advise them to go for a ‘fixed’ cradle. ‘‘Due to the swinging movement of cradle, neurons in brain of the infant are lost and such babies become less intelligent,’’ he explains.

K N Hebbar says the doctor’s advice had been exisiting for ages. ‘‘Lifestyle changes have also contributed a lot to dip in sales of cradles,’’ he explains.