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A high-tech T-shirt that was originally designed for the US Navy has been
scaled down so it can be used to protect babies at risk of cot death. With other
methods, parents monitor their infants’ breathing and heart rate by strapping on
rubberised electrode patches held in place with a Velcro belt that wraps under
the arms. But the belt often doesn’t hold the electrodes tight enough and
children can get tangled in wires that attach to a monitor. The new shirt has
nylon fibres filled with metal filaments that act as electrodes running down
towards the waist. “It has fewer wires that the child can get wrapped around
in,” says Gary Freed of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who is testing the
shirt on infants.