A HEALTHY four-month-old baby boy died after being left alone asleep in a bedroom on a mat.

The mat carried a safety warning for babies and toddlers not to be left on it unsupervised, an inquest heard.

Leonidas Ramsden, who was born on Christmas Day 2021, died at his home in Buckfastleigh in April 2022.

The Exeter inquest heard the previous evening he was breastfed before being placed on his back on the mat on top of his parents’ mattress that was on the floor of the bedroom.

Leonidas’ 21-year-old mother Chloe felt unwell and fell asleep on a sofa but had asked the baby’s father Dudley, 29, to check on him and put him in his moses basket where he usually slept.

Dudley said he checked on him at 3am and did not want to disturb the baby by moving him.

But they both fell asleep on the sofa and at 6am his mother woke and found Leonidas face down on the mat, unresponsive.

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.’

A post mortem could not ascertain the cause of death but the pathologist could not exclude sudden unexplained death in infancy (SUDI).

DC Donna Tullock said: ‘We were told it was a sleeping pod but it appeared more like the underneath of a play mat which 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.’

Area coroner for Devon Alison Longhorn recorded a narrative conclusion saying: ‘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.’