Lower The Risk Of Sids

Lower The Risk Of Sids

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A report in Pediatrics published in 2009 defined Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) as one of the leading causes of post neonatal newborn death for babies following one month of age. The research discovered that the majority of SIDS deaths occur in newborns that are between 2 and 4 months old.

The number one killer of children under the age of 1 is SIDS. It accounts for approximately 9% of all newborn death, and happens mainly in the first 6 months of life. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome hardly ever takes place before 1 month of age or after 6 months.

In the United States, SIDS is responsible for killing about 2,550 babies every year. In Canada, SIDS is the primary cause of death for newborns more than four weeks old, accounting for about one infant death out of every 1,410 live births. Three decades of investigation have found factors that increase the risk of SIDS-like letting infants snooze on their stomachs-but no authoritative answers as to what causes the condition. Despite years of thorough research, the causes of SIDS continue to be unknown.

What We Do Know

Babies less than one year are more likely to die of SIDS. In general, a SIDS death occurs when a quietly sleeping newborn simply never wakes up. Newborns could go through episodes termed apparent life-threatening events (ALTEs). These are clinical events in which young newborns might go through sudden changes in breathing, color, or muscle tone. Newborns have died from SIDS at all times of the day and night, in car seats, strollers, cribs, bassinets, even in a parent's loving arms. While SIDS used to be referred to more frequently as crib death, that does not suggest that it only occurred in cribs, that simply tended to be the place most dead infants were found.

To complicate matters even more, doctors and police may be uninformed of a family's past, or they may be blinded by pity for the brokenhearted parents. A heartbreaking story is of Marybeth Tinning of Schenectady, New York, who won only sympathy as, one by one, her nine youngsters died of SIDS and other vague natural causes between 1972 and 1985. Doctors still don't know what causes this condition. In truth, the verdict of SIDS is made only after every other possible explanations are ruled out.

Infants with supposed cases of SIDS should have an autopsy performed by a forensic pathologist who has specific training in cause-of-death determinations, and the autopsy should include histological and toxicological examinations. The quality and interpretation of postmortem information varies, in part, because many investigative certifier systems do not have a written set of rules that lists the criteria to be used to make a diagnosis of SIDS. Babies of all socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups are potentially vulnerable, though with varying probability. Infants at maximum risk of SIDS consist of: pre-term infants, especially those weighing less than 2.3 pounds or 1,000 gm; newborns who had intrauterine growth restriction; newborns born to mothers with little or no prenatal care or under 20 years of age; males; and African Americans and Native Americans. Newborns who sleep on their stomachs and sides have a higher rate of SIDS than infants who sleep on their backs.

Infants who die from SIDS tend to have elevated concentrations of nicotine and cotinine (a biological marker for secondhand smoke contact) in their lungs than those who die from other causes. Infants that come into contact with secondhand smoke after birth are also at a higher risk of SIDS.

Babies whose mothers smoked throughout pregnancy were born with smaller airways. This causes vulnerable breathing complications subsequent to birth. We also know that more newborns die of SIDS whose mothers smoked during and after pregnancy. Infants produce a ton of phlegm and have a huge amount of secretions still clearing out of their lungs. The lungs are irritated by smoke which causes even more phlegm to be produced. Cigarette smoking in pregnancy will lower the amount of oxygen the fetus receives. Cigarette taxes and laws regulating indoor smoking are known to be powerful predictors of smoking behaviors amongst all adults and pregnant women. Provided smoking is really a connecting determinant of SIDS, then policies which lower smoking ought to have the additional benefit of reducing SIDS cases.

A dilemma in defining smoking as a causal determinant of SIDS is obvious: babies never exposed to cigarette smoke nevertheless die of SIDS. To make matters worse, studies show that newborns who are breast fed, that have had great prenatal care, that were full term along with being of normal birth weight, that have parents who have not abused drugs, to the point, that have no recognized risk factors, nevertheless die from SIDS. Notwithstanding these problems, we do know that mothers that smoke during pregnancy are three times more likely to have a SIDS baby and contact with passive smoke after pregnancy doubles a baby's risk of SIDS.

Statistics show that SIDS occurs primarily during the winter months, and girls are affected less than boys. The newborn has at times had a mild respiratory infection and may well not have been feeding well in the previous weeks. Figures show that African-American and Native-American babies are at higher risk.

A recent study released by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) discovered over half of SIDS cases occurred while the infant was co-sleeping along with an adult or another child. Of those deaths, many occurred in a potentially hazardous environment, such as on a bed or on a couch together with an individual that had recently used drugs or alcohol.

Several studies have shown that an deformity on the brain stem that regulates respiratory functions was to blame for the fatality, but this theory has yet to be set in stone. Although very unusual, anaphylaxis from any cause -- such as a food, drug, or environmental allergen -- can lead to swift, unexpected death. On the basis of a well-documented instance of lethal anaphylactic shock in twin infants that happened after each was given a second dose of diphtheria toxoid and whole-cell pertussis vaccine (DwP), the committee concluded that the data favors acknowledgment of a connection concerning this vaccine and infant death due to anaphylaxis.

The good news update is that the frequency of SIDS is on the drop in the United States and other countries. This drop has been accomplished largely through public education campaigns teaching parents concerning several key factors linked with an increased risk of SIDS. Even though they have suggested ways, there is no absolute method to preventing SIDS from occurring.

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