Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, is a scary term to parents worldwide. It’s something that parents often hear well-nigh and truly hope it’s something that never happens to their family. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is an unexplained and sudden death of a seemingly healthy victual that often occurs surpassing the age of one.1 These infant deaths typically happen when a victual is sleeping and are moreover referred to as “crib death.”2
For many years, researchers have been trying to identify the rationalization and risk factors for SIDS to prevent these deaths from occurring. While researchers haven’t been worldly-wise to identify the word-for-word rationalization of SIDS, there is new research that indicates SIDS deaths may be related to a combination of factors and that there are protective factors that families can alimony in mind.3
Risk Factors for SIDS
Some researchers have noted that SIDS may be related to a defect in a portion of infants’ brains that is related to zoetic and arousing from sleep. Other risk factors include:
- being born prematurely
- low lineage weight
- being exposed to cigarette smoke
- respiratory infections
- brain defects
- being a male
- non-white babies
- having SIDS deaths within the family
Researchers have moreover noted babies born to mothers who are younger than 20, drank alcohol/used substances during their pregnancy, or did not receive unobjectionable superintendency during the prenatal period may moreover be at higher risk of developing SIDS.3Â In wing to these risk factors, significant environmental risk factors have been identified, which has led to the minutiae of Unscratched Sleep Guidelines.
Protective Factors for SIDS
Many Unscratched Sleep Guidelines have been put into place to ensure that babies are sleeping in a unscratched sleeping environment to lower the risk of SIDS and other types of crib deaths such as suffocation or strangulation. In the United States, the Unscratched Sleep Guidelines are set by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Unscratched sleep guidelines include:
- Placing babies to sleep on their backs in a crib/bassinet.
- Breastfeeding your babies.
- Offering a pacifier.
- Avoid exposure to harmful toxins such as cigarette smoke.
- Having babies sleep on a firm unappetizing surface, like a crib mattress.
- Their crib/bassinet (sleep space) is self-ruling of loose items like blankets, stuffed animals, crib bumpers, or other potentially dangerous products.
- Make sure babies are sleeping in a tomfool environment and are not at risk of overheating.
- Babies room-share with parents until at least six months old (and plane up to 1 year) while lamister bed-sharing.
While there are many things that we can do to ensure that our babies are sleeping in a unscratched environment and offer as many protective factors as possible, SIDS has remained a significant rationalization of infant deaths in Western countries.4 Research has unfurled to find out increasingly well-nigh the causes of this syndrome.
New Groundbreaking Research
This week, groundbreaking research has come out of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, in Australia, that has indicated that there may be a biochemical marker that plays a role in infants that have died of SIDS. Researchers completed a study in which they measured a biochemical marker, BChE, in infants 2-3 days without birth. The levels of BChE were significantly lower in babies that died due to SIDS than in babies who remained living or died from other reasons. These results are significant to note considering this ways that there is the possibility of identifying infants that are increasingly at risk of developing SIDS and provides future research opportunities to identify potential interventions for these infants.5
This research was led by Dr. Carmel Harrington, who has spent 29 years focused on finding answers well-nigh SIDS without losing her 2-year-old son, Damien. This study offers hope to many families with young babies, who may constantly worry well-nigh SIDS in the when (or front) of their minds. By identifying this biochemical marker, remoter interventions may be ripened to help prevent SIDS deaths from occurring in those babies at risk.
What Does This Mean for Parents?
As a parent, it’s important to protract pursuit the Unscratched Sleep Guidelines set out by your country to minimize your child’s risk of SIDS while taking precautions as weightier as possible. Keeping up to stage with these guidelines, the SIDS risk factors, education, and protective factors, parents can help ensure they are equipped with the knowledge to weightier support their families. If you finger unsure of guidelines and ways to minimize your child’s risk, reach out to a trusted professional, such as a family doctor or pediatrician, to discuss further.
SIDS is a frightening rationalization of death for infants worldwide, and unfortunately, it has impacted many families. As a Pediatric Sleep Consultant, this new research is hopeful to share with families! While it’s important for families to remain cautious by pursuit Unscratched Sleep Guidelines, this new study offers hope that there will be a way to identify infants at risk of SIDS. And with future research, there may be the potential to provide preventative support to families.
Resources
1. https://www.cdc.gov/sids/about/index.htm
2. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/sids.html
3. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sudden-infant-death-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20352800
4. https://www.cdc.gov/sids/data.htm
5. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2352396422002225?token=352F3A496BB5E074343FE1AB0B509E7B5684EE57DBCDD67B1A8535E4DAA81D5B8EB11247D65E737C75F8918D6263989F&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20220513171255
6. https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2020/tips-for-keeping-infants-safe-during-sleep-from-the-american-academy-of-pediatrics/
7. http://www.sleepforhealth.net.au/
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