Sudden infant death syndrome

Definitions & Key takeaways

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden unexplained death of a child less than one year of age. SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion and requires that death remains unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. Possible risk factors for SIDS include sleeping on the stomach or side, sleeping on a soft surface, and exposure to cigarette smoke. over-bundling, and sleeping in a room where there are multiple people. To lower the risk of SIDS the recommendation is to not expose babies to cigarette smoke, and to make sure that babies sleep alone in a crib, on their backs, and without blankets.

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Sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, which is also known as cot death, crib death, is the sudden and unexplainable death of an infant during their first year of life.
Because of the seemingly random nature of the condition, there are a number of risk factors that seem to correlate with getting SIDS, but there’s no clear mechanism or cause that’s been identified.
SIDS is considered a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning all other causes have to be ruled out before an infant death is given that label.
The most well-known risk factors have to do with how an infant sleeps; to lower the risk of SIDS the recommendation is to make sure that babies sleep alone in a crib, on their backs and without blankets.
The risk of SIDS is higher among boys rather than girls, as well as infants between two and four months old, and among formula-fed babies, and those born prematurely or with low birth weight.
Risk factors that relate to a mother include receiving little or no prenatal care, being a teenage mother, and smoking during the pregnancy.
Alcohol consumption is also thought to be a risk factor because there are more cases of SIDS during weekends, the New Year, and other times of year when drinking is included in celebrations.
The fact that far more boys die of SIDS than girls shows that there is a level of genetic susceptibility at play, but the exact specifics are unclear.
A minority of SIDS-related deaths show a correlation with genetically inherited channelopathies, which are defects in ion channels that affect a variety of tissues, including the heart.
Another possible genetic link is the higher incidence of SIDS in babies with gene mutations involved in the autonomic nervous system.
These clues, though, are still being researched, and no exact gene or combination of genetic defects has been identified.
SIDS is generally thought to occur in children that have a genetic susceptibility which is then triggered by external factors.
An epidemiologic clue is that Native American infants have the highest rates of SIDS while Asian infants have the lowest rates of SIDS.
Cultural practices around sleep, though, might also play a role, and so it makes it hard to tease apart genetic and environmental factors when it comes to race.
A diagnosis of SIDS can only be made following an autopsy, to make sure that there isn’t an alternative explanation for an infant’s death.
For prevention, unfortunately because the underlying cause of SIDS is unknown, there’s no surefire way to prevent it. All right, as a quick recap - sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion given to an infant that dies of unknown causes, and is most common in infant boys between 2 and 4 months of age, but can happen anytime in the first year of life.
To minimize the risk of SIDS, infants should be put to sleep on their back, should not be exposed to cigarette smoke, and should be breastfed if possible.