Sudden Death Syndrome (SIDS)

I never knew, until I had a baby, the fear one would get as a new mother whenever they laid their newborn down to sleep in their crib.  Of course we all learn about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but it really doesn’t click until you find yourself getting up throughout the night to ensure your baby is still breathing.  Because of how important that one should know about SIDS, I chose to delve deeper into this deadly Syndrome.

I found out that not only is SIDS the leading cause of death in infants under one year of age, but our tendency to protect our baby by over-wrapping them leads to thermal stress.  Thermal stress is a risk factor for SIDS.  In the United States, we are unaware that over-wrapping when combined with infections and placing the child in unsafe sleep positions is a recipe for a tragedy.  For instance, the country of China has very cold and severe winter months, so over-wrapping infants when the flu and other infections are at their peak increases the risk of SIDS immensely. 

            Placing newborns on their backs to sleep is thought to be the safest position. Even though this technique is advertised and taught in newborn classes, an alarming amount of parents and caregivers still lay babies in facedown or in side-sleep positions.  New parents are advised to take these precautions to aid in the prevention of SIDS:

• Place babies face up in the crib.

• Put babies' feet closer to the foot of the bed to stop them from rolling down.

• Tuck in blankets at babies' feet, but never higher than the armpit.

• Never cover a baby's face or head, because this is where the majority of baby heat is released.

• Never fall asleep with a baby on the couch or in the bed besides you, since you could roll over on or drop the baby.

• Don't rely on baby apnea monitors, because they cannot pick up on drops in oxygen levels and other subtle changes leading up to SIDS.

• Keep in mind that premature babies are at higher risk for SIDS (McCoy, 2012).

Infants can appear healthy and while gaining weight, learning to shake a rattle, rolling over, and smiling to their parents they can still die unexpectedly in their sleep.  Whenever an autopsy cannot prove a reasonable cause of death, the diagnosis is SIDS.  In the United States during the 1990s, about 5,000 babies died of SIDS; this averages to about 1 infant in 800.  Individuals in lower socioeconomic conditions have an increase in the rate of SIDS, but poverty did not explain these important ethnic differences. 

Some doctors are beginning to recommend to parents that their newborns should be placed to sleep on their backs, not their stomachs, in the hopes that this reduces the likelihood of SIDS.  Doctors are also including the new techniques of breast feeding and giving the baby a pacifier, which may help by strengthening infants’ breathing reflexes (Berger, 2009).

To be honest, the cause of SIDS is still unknown, but there are many doctors and researchers who now believe that SIDS is caused by a couple of different factors, such as:

·         Problems with the baby’s ability to wake up (sleep arousal)
·        The baby’s body inability to detect a build-up of carbon dioxide in the blood

The emotional support of others is especially important when a child is loss to SIDS.  Some parents find it comforting to talk to other parents who have experience the same type of loss.  Since it is unexplainable to a parent on why they woke up, but their baby did not, many parents have guilty feelings.  The baby’s death must be resolved, which means the parents guilty feelings will be further aggravated by investigations of police or others.  

Understanding that others may not know how to approach you because you really are experiencing a devastating loss. You should try and maintain an open line of communication with friends and family about how you are feeling and understand that  healing from an unimaginative grief takes time (SIDS, 2011)

                                                                    Reference

Berger, K.S. (2009). The developing person through childhood. (5^th ed.). Worth  Publishers.  

McCoy, K. (2007). SIDS in China---Don’t overwrap your baby. Retrieved from
http://www.beijing-kids.com/forum/2007/03/06/SIDS-IN-CHINA-DONT-OVERWRAP-YOUR-BABY

Sudden infant death syndrome. (2011). Retrieved on July 2, 2012 from

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002533/