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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - a breath of fresh air...

Just read the following information that could be a breakthrough for parents of young children:

Letting children sleep on their backs has certainly reduced the danger of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome(SIDS), but other simple measures such as using a fan or opening a window could reduce it by a further 72%, compared to those sleeping in a room without a fan. Just opening a window on its own, reduced SIDS by 36%.

Kimberly Coleman-Phox and colleagues at Kaiser Permanentes Division of Research in Oakland, California, have reportedly researched the above breakthrough during their research into young children's sleep positions.

Another story

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I have written another piece on ...

Submitted by huttriver12 on Tue, 2008-10-14 15:47.

sleep apnea. Will post today.

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Sassy's over at BP...

Submitted by huttriver12 on Mon, 2008-10-13 17:43.

also lost a child twenty four years ago. I think she blamed herself for many years.I have a thread going there too.

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Thanks for your comments...

Submitted by huttriver12 on Mon, 2008-10-13 17:40.

like many things there are no definative answers. This latest one is helpful, I guess. So many parents blame themselves.Now heres a thought?

Could the problems relating to SIDS be an early form of sleep apnea? Over at BP there is also a suggestion that those who have had breathing problems as babies could have problems later as older children or adults when undergoing anasthesia.

Just some thoughts for discussion.

Good to see you back djbtol.

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The connection to sleep apnea

Submitted by djbtol on Tue, 2008-10-14 07:19.

has often been discussed and many think there is a connection. After we lost our son, we were told that standard medical practice was to have subsequent children on a monitor that watches breathing and heart rate. With our first subsequent child, we had her on the monitor for a little over a year. She had no real apnea alarms, just loose connections a few times.

Our second subsequent child was also on the monitor for about a year. She did have a few apnea episodes. Of course, many babies will have a little bit of apnea as part of their maturing process. We will never know if the monitor saved her life, or if it would have prevented a SIDS death.

For the third subsequent child, we decided that faith in God was the bigger issue and we did not put her on the monitor. She was fine.

The data we do not have is this: What if our son had been on the monitor? What would it have shown and would it have made a difference? The understandable problem is that we do not monitor a significant population of babies so we can compare those who eventually die of SIDS to those who do not.

SIDS deaths get a lot of scrutiny these days. Questioning by police, and sometimes implied blame. It's terrible enough for the parents, but imagine the stress for hospital nurses and babysitters when talking about cause.

djbtol

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How awful, djbtol

Submitted by Elly on Mon, 2008-10-13 15:45.

to suffer the loss of a child with SIDS. Luckily I was not to suffer such personal loss, but as a nurse saw it. In fact early one morning in the hospital many years ago we had two SIDS deaths - two dear little babies who died without apparent reason in the wee hours of the morning. I agree that there still appears to be no good reason for this terrible tragedy. There does not appear to be any REAL breakthrough in the search for an answer.

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That is one side of the story,

Submitted by djbtol on Mon, 2008-10-13 15:25.

but not the whole story. As a parent of a SIDS baby, and one who spent much time trying to understand it, I can assure you that is not the whole story. When we had lost our son, researchers had still not been able to determine the cause, but all indications were that something was going on in the brain stem of the baby. At that time there was significant pressure on the medical community to come up with some type of explanation. About a year or so later they came up with the sleep position thing. For every study that seemed to support the idea, there was another that did not.

Now, such simple answers are politically correct, and the only thng listened to. SIDS is not a result of suffocation or overheating, since that would be evident in the autopsy.

An unknown entity, like SIDS, is scary to any parent. Those who have not experienced SIDS are quite happy to blame it on something simple, they can control, and make the scary monster go away. We all like to be in control.

Those who have lived through SIDS know it is not so.

(my perspective, others may disagree)
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