Scientists Discover Cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Scientists 'discover cause of cot death'
Via here - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectID=10408803

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Scientists 'discover cause of cot death'
Thursday November 2, 2006

Scientists believe they have solved the mystery of cot death, the leading killer of children in their first year of life.
A study of victims of sudden infant death syndrome (Sids) has revealed that they had an abnormality in the brain that prevented it realising their bodies did not have enough oxygen.
The effect of the abnormality is that babies may suffocate if they become smothered by bedclothes, especially if sleeping on their fronts.
The finding "takes the mystery away from Sids", said Marian Willinger, a researcher at the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which financed the study.
"It should take the guilt away from any parent who has lost a baby, because they always wonder, 'What did I do wrong?' Now, they need to understand, 'My baby had a disease'."
The researchers from Boston Children's Hospital said the finding was the strongest evidence yet of a common cause for cot death, the cause of which has been a mystery to specialists.
It opens the possibility of detecting infants at risk - possibly through a scan in the womb - and treating them.
Some mothers have been jailed for murder after the unexplained deaths of their babies.
In New Zealand, about 50 babies die from cot death each year.
In Britain, 300 babies died last year, 16 per cent fewer than in 2004 and less than a third of the number 20 years ago.
The Back to Sleep campaign in the early 1990s which urged parents to put babies to sleep on their backs is credited with bringing about the dramatic fall.
Greater alertness and better ways of determining causes of death have also contributed to the decline.
The researchers studied samples from the brainstems of 31 cot death babies and compared them with samples from 10 babies who died of other causes.
They found abnormalities in the brain stems of the cot death babies affecting the way they used the brain chemical serotonin.
Serotonin is best known for its role in depression and regulating mood, but it also influences breathing, body temperature and arousal from sleep.
"This finding lends credence to the view that Sids risk may greatly increase when an underlying predisposition combines with an environmental risk - such as sleeping face down - at a sensitive time in early life," said Dr Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health.
Hannah Kinney, the paper's senior author, said: "These findings provide evidence that sudden infant death syndrome is not a mystery but a disorder that we can investigate, and some day may be able to identify and treat."
Most babies will wake up, turn over, and start breathing faster when their carbon dioxide levels rise.
But in babies who die from Sids, defects in the serotonin system may impair these reflexes.
Such circumstances are far more likely to arise if a baby is placed face down in the cot.
Auckland paediatrician Dr Shirley Tonkin, of the Cot Death Association, said: "We've never really been able to explain why some babies don't wake up, and this research explains why to some extent."
But she said parents still needed to be careful. "You can't tell by looking at a baby which one will get into trouble and which one won't.
"You still shouldn't smoke during pregnancy or around babies, you should put babies on their backs and they should sleep in their own space in the parents' room."
She wasn't surprised at the findings, saying: "We've had inklings of this before."
She hoped the findings would help parents who had lost babies to cot death.
"This research explains to parents that what they do for one child they might not be able to do for another. If one baby was OK on its tummy, the next one might not be."

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A close friend of mine lost his child to what the doctors called "Crib Death",
two years later, they had another child,
if they had not stayed awake for the first 6 days, they would not have noticed the child getting weaker,
they called the doctors and they got sent to another hospital 50 km away.
that child would have also died of "crib death"? -
it turned out the child has an allergy to fat (milk etc).

"Cot Death" in my view is a bogus explanation for something they can't explain. (UFO)
Finding out what the child died of is difficult.

It is the absolute worst nightmare for any parent.

300 cribdeaths a year in Britain should push doctors to search more into it. and take precautions.
In this study they found that the child is unable to have normal reflexes when there is a lack of oxygen. A "disease" they say
A child within one year old is also incaple of distinguishing between heights and has absolutly no concept of fear - is that a disease also?

Putting the baby on the back seems the most logical, for avoidance of suffocation and availability of head movement, alsocovering baby in a douve pyjama type of thing is wiser than a sheet or douve, prevention of it coveing face.

the horror.


Here are some good comments in reflection of this article. http://digg.com/television/Scientist...Death_Syndrome

As new parents ourselves, we were obviously worried about cot death. I agree with you, it's basically something they don't really understand. It's amazing that cot deaths were cut massively once they started telling people to put the babies to sleep on their backs, a complete reversal from 10 years ago.

When I was a baby, the advice was to lay me on my side. When my brother was a baby (2 years later) the advice was to lay him on his front!!!!

[The thinking was, that if he was sick in the night, then he wouldn't choke on it, but studies have shown that babies who are sick and they are on their back, their head instinctively goes to the side.]

Also, it has been linked to people smoking around the baby, and the mother's smoking when pregnant. Both of which happen less often these days, as they did in the past.

This leads me to believe that the vast majority of what people call cot death is suffocation.

The rules we followed were:

1). Lay baby on her back.
2). Use a "sleeping bag" rather than blankets.
3). Ensure room not too warm. (19-21 degrees C)
4). Don't fall asleep on sofa holding baby.
5). Not taking her anywhere smokey, and forcing grandma to smoke outside.



I got really worried at about 4 months, when she started rolling over in her sleep and spent most of the nights on her front, silly really! :lol:


It's a horrible thing to happen. But I don't think you can blame any sort of abnormality in the brain.

I think it's just suffocation.

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Originally Posted by Barbarossa

As new parents ourselves, we were obviously worried about cot death. I agree with you, it's basically something they don't really understand. It's amazing that cot deaths were cut massively once they started telling people to put the babies to sleep on their backs, a complete reversal from 10 years ago.

When I was a baby, the advice was to lay me on my side. When my brother was a baby (2 years later) the advice was to lay him on his front!!!!

[The thinking was, that if he was sick in the night, then he wouldn't choke on it, but studies have shown that babies who are sick and they are on their back, their head instinctively goes to the side.]

Also, it has been linked to people smoking around the baby, and the mother's smoking when pregnant. Both of which happen less often these days, as they did in the past.

This leads me to believe that the vast majority of what people call cot death is suffocation.

The rules we followed were:

1). Lay baby on her back.
2). Use a "sleeping bag" rather than blankets.
3). Ensure room not too warm. (19-21 degrees C)
4). Don't fall asleep on sofa holding baby.
5). Not taking her anywhere smokey, and forcing grandma to smoke outside.



I got really worried at about 4 months, when she started rolling over in her sleep and spent most of the nights on her front, silly really! :lol:


It's a horrible thing to happen. But I don't think you can blame any sort of abnormality in the brain.

I think it's just suffocation.

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I think every parent is on edge with infants. I have seen me get out of bed two and three times a night because I thought my daughter had stopped breathing. I did not have that bother with my son. The wee bugger either snored or cried all bloody night.:)

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Originally Posted by bigboab

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Originally Posted by Barbarossa

As new parents ourselves, we were obviously worried about cot death. I agree with you, it's basically something they don't really understand. It's amazing that cot deaths were cut massively once they started telling people to put the babies to sleep on their backs, a complete reversal from 10 years ago.

When I was a baby, the advice was to lay me on my side. When my brother was a baby (2 years later) the advice was to lay him on his front!!!!

[The thinking was, that if he was sick in the night, then he wouldn't choke on it, but studies have shown that babies who are sick and they are on their back, their head instinctively goes to the side.]

Also, it has been linked to people smoking around the baby, and the mother's smoking when pregnant. Both of which happen less often these days, as they did in the past.

This leads me to believe that the vast majority of what people call cot death is suffocation.

The rules we followed were:

1). Lay baby on her back.
2). Use a "sleeping bag" rather than blankets.
3). Ensure room not too warm. (19-21 degrees C)
4). Don't fall asleep on sofa holding baby.
5). Not taking her anywhere smokey, and forcing grandma to smoke outside.



I got really worried at about 4 months, when she started rolling over in her sleep and spent most of the nights on her front, silly really! :lol:


It's a horrible thing to happen. But I don't think you can blame any sort of abnormality in the brain.

I think it's just suffocation.

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I think every parent is on edge with infants. I have seen me get out of bed two and three times a night because I thought my daughter had stopped breathing. I did not have that bother with my son. The wee bugger either snored or cried all bloody night.:)

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'Tis a a punishing endeavor, dealing with the tiny ones.

Dads worry worse than Mums, and don't mention it.

It shortens our lives. :huh:

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It shortens our lives.

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It would appear that I did not do much worrying.:lol:

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Originally Posted by bigboab

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It shortens our lives.

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It would appear that I did not do much worrying.:lol:

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Who knows?

Maybe you'd have lived to 150...:dabs:

How many times have you checked if he/she is still breathing?

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Originally Posted by 100%

How many times have you checked if he/she is still breathing?

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Constantly.

About 25 years ago, when my kids were infants, my next-door neighbors lost their baby boy to SIDS.

It was horrifying.