Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Around the World

SIDS is called crib-death in North America and cot-death in England. SIDS is when an infant goes to sleep and never wakes up. No one knows the reason for this feared family tragedy. Research has been done to test theories of this mystery.

Susan Beal studied every SIDS death in South Australia seeking any and all circumstances and found some interesting commonalities. The mother's smoking and lambskin blankets seemed to be a couple of commonalities. She also found genetic make-up of Chinese descent helped to ward off SIDS. Chinese babies always slept on their backs, while European babies slept on their stomachs. Susan developed a hypothesis that sleeping on the back would decrease the risk. She had a large group of non-Chinese people all put their babies to sleep on their backs. Almost none died(Berger, 2012).

Pediatricians in the Netherlands began telling parents to put babies to sleep on their backs. In Holland, 2 scientists began recommending back-sleeping and SIDS was reduced by 40% in one year(Berger, 2012).

Some things you may not know about SIDS:

SIDS deaths have declined by more than half in every country since 1990 when the “Back to Sleep” Campaign was initiated (SIDScenter.org).

The instances of SIDS is equal in girl and boy infant deaths.

There are no symptoms or warning signs.

Doctors think one cause is the inability for the baby's body to detect a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood(A.D.A.M., 2011).

Some doctors think the baby has problems with its' ability to wake up.

Approximately 2 infants out of 1,000 will die from SIDS(RightDiagnosis, 2011).

Always keep baby's head uncovered while sleeping(Disability online, 2000).

The following are linked to increased risk of SIDS(A.D.A.M., 2011):

Stomach sleeping

Smoking environment

Co-sleeping (sleeping in the same bed as parents)

Soft bedding

Premature births

Siblings who had SIDS

Mothers who smoke

Late or no prenatal care

Poverty situations

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines recommend the following(A.D.A.M., 2011):

ALWAYS sleep on back

Breastfeed when possible

Offer a pacifier when going to sleep

Put baby to sleep in same room NOT in same bed

Have tight-fitting mattress cover and avoid thick, soft blankets

Keep temperature cool. Do NOT overheat baby

Support Groups for victims of SIDS(Sidscenter.org):

www.sids.org

www.sidscenter.org

This topic has always interested me, especially when I became a new mom.  My husband had a child from a previous marriage die from SIDS. So I was very conscious about the issue and what not to do.  I don't believe that I slept through the night until my son was 10 months old.  He would stop breathing sometimes 10 times a night.  The doctor said "don't worry about it until he stops for 10 seconds or more.  Babies just forget to breathe."  Really?!?  I worried more then.  I had a co-sleeper brand bed that butted up to the side of the bed and I slept across the width of the bed so I could rest my hand on him.  There were many nights I had to wake him.  One night in particular I remember putting my hand on his chest and there was nothing.  I waited a few seconds then I grabbed him up.  It scared him into breathing.  I cry just remembering that time.  I did all of the right things to avoid SIDS and the only increased risk was the sibling with SIDS.  I was lucky; I cannot imagine losing a child to SIDS.

References:

A.D.A.M. Medical Encylopedia. (2011). Retrieved January 18, 2014 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002533/

Berger, K. (2012). The Developing Person Through Childhood. New York, NY. Worth Publishers.

Disability Online. (2000). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Statistics. Retrieved January 18, 2014 from http://hnb.dhs.vic.gov.au/dsonline/dsarticles.nsf/pages/Sudden_infant_death_syndrome_statistics

National SUID/SIDS Resource Center. (2011). Statistics of SUID and SIDS. Retrieved Janaury 18, 2014 from http://www.sidscenter.org/Statistics_OLD.html

Right Diagnosis.com. (2011). Statistics about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Retrieved January 18, 2014 from http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/s/sids/stats-country.htm

A mother's health impacts the health of her child.

Just as everyone does, I call my child my miracle. I was told at 34 that if I was not pregnant by 35, it was going to happen. So I quit worry about and raised everyone else's babies. At 38, I found out I was going to have a baby. I was so excited – but I was so worried that something would happen, I didn't by anything for the baby until my 9^th month.

I was already at 287 pounds (I only gained 13 lbs total) so I really had to watch everything I put into my mouth. I began eating lots of fruits and vegetables and lots of grape juice (the only thing I craved). I ate NO McDonald's or fast food of any kind and only allowed myself a sweet tea and baked potato on Fridays (if I had been good). I took my prenatal vitamins and drank my milk and LOTS of water (the only thing to curb the nausea). I was doing great, had lots of energy, and was really enjoying being pregnant.

Then a little storm called Katrina hit. Everything went crazy. I was at home alone watching the ceiling cave in and the trees fall all around me. Once the storm passed, I was stranded until someone could come cut trees. There was no electricity and no water; and it was so hot! 89 degrees at midnight is not the comfort we have become accustomed to. We had sleep on the tile floor just to keep cool. My young nephew (2 years old) and I began to dehydrate, so the family set out on a road trip. It took three days of rest and water for either of us to get better. The electricity came back on at our house after day six, so we went home.

At that time, I had two childcare centers across the street from each other with about 65 children total. One of the centers was totaled by two pine trees and flooding. We hurriedly removed contents to keep them from ruining all the while without power and water. Restaurants that cooked with gas gave food away. Our center cooked for parents to come pick up food for their children. This was a horrific ordeal and one that I personally never want to repeat and we were not in New Orleans or on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (we were one and a quarter hours up the highway from Gulfport, Mississippi in Hattiesburg).  We reopened only one building after 10 days and had to use every nook and cranny we could to house the children until other arrangements could be made.

Once power and water was restored, doctor's appointments resumed. I now had high blood pressure, hypertension, and had to do a non-stress test every week for the next 10 weeks. I'm so glad that I had been doing well with my diet because now I had to take 1500 mg of blood pressure meds everyday. I ended up working about 11 hrs a day because staff left due to the storm and never came back.  I still continued my nutritious eating plan and really stuck to it now.  I didn't want anything to happen to my little one.

At week 37, I ended beginning to swell and the doctor's induced that week. After 4 hours of hard labor that I don't remember because they kept me on pain meds because of the blood pressure, the doctor decided to do a C-section at 10:45pm. I had a beautiful, healthy, perfect little boy with a head full of brown hair that weighed in at 8lbs 7oz. He's eight now, still healthy and beautiful and not so perfect. But he's my miracle.

I have often wondered about those women in New Orleans who were pregnant. They were actually stranded and could not get out of the city as it flooded. We all saw pictures of people standing on the caved in bridges waiting for help and trying to stay on high ground. We've heard of so many people that were lost due to this storm. The city was out of commission for weeks. How would she have gotten emergency care for her and her baby? Water? Food of any kind, not necessarily nutritious? While we are pregnant we really don't like to think about bad stuff, do we?

This situation has me thinking about the women in Somalia. 1 in 10 Somali children die before their first birthday; 1 in 5 die before their 5^th birthday. Somalia has 250 trained doctors, 860 nurses, and 116 midwives for the whole population of 9 million. Only one-third of pregnant women have skilled health care at the birth and one-fourth only receive prenatal care one time with just 6% receiving prenatal care four times (PeaceWomen.org). This is the main reason the mortality rate is so high. Many have been driven from their homes to live in unsanitary conditions at refugee camps where they are not even able to get clean water to drink or bathe.

As a mother and a caring human being, I cannot even begin to imagine a situation as sad as Somalia.

PeaceWomen.org. (2010). Somalia: Pregnant Women Need More Care. Retrieved January 11, 2014 from http://www.peacewomen.org/news_article.php?id=2612&type=news