Sudden Infant Death Sydrome: The Silent Killer

Here are some basic tips, relevant information, and facts that every new parent should know about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, so that parents can take some preventive measures to protect their infant from SIDS in infancy. As a parent of a newborn it important that you know that SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is a condition that occurs when an infant stop breathing, it usually happens during the night and it happens suddenly in which an infant can die without an apparent cause of death.

In fact, these are some startling statistics that every new parent should know about SIDS did you know that:

• One out of 360 infants dies of this mysterious condition
• SIDS is the leading cause of death for infants before the age 1
• SIDS remains the highest cause of death in the United States with nearly 3,000 infant deaths annually due to SIDS
• The death rate for SIDS is the highest are when an infant is four to six weeks of age (Santrock).

Furthermore, did you know that the sleeping position that an infant is placed in can lower an infant of being placed at risk from suffering from SIDS. In fact, parents of infants should know that based on recent research that was done by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1992, "they have recommended the importance of placing your infant on their back to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS" (AP). Moreover, SIDS is more common among infants who sleep on their stomachs. Moreover, did you that there is an advertisement campaign that has been highly effective in educating the public about this the slogan in this public awareness campaign whic is entitled "Back to sleep" this is the safest way to reduce the risk of SIDS in infants.

It is good to know that statistics seem to support that worldwide SIDS rates has fallen to 1 in 1,000 infants that succumbed to SIDS. Also in the United States, in particular between 1992 and 1996 many parents had stopped the stomach sleeping practice and this rate had decreased from 70 to 24 percent, and the SIDS rate dropped from 1.2 to 0.7 per 1,000 as related to infants that succumbed to SIDS (Santrock).

Most important it imperative that parents of infants be aware of some of the risk factors that can increase your infant's chance of dying from SIDS:

• Smoking during pregnancy
• Abusing cocaine or heroin during pregnancy
• Low birth weight infants are five to ten times more likely to die of SIDS than are their normal-weight counterparts
• Infants whose siblings have died of SIDS are two to four times as likely to die of it
• African-American and Eskimo infants are two to six times as likely above others infants to die of SIDS
• SIDS is more common in lower socioeconomic groups
• Soft bedding is not recommended
• Teenage parenthood
• Overdressed infants
• Formula-feed infants.

In closing, here are some basic tips and facts that every new parent should know about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, so they can take preventive measures to protect their infant from SIDS in their infancy. It important for new parents to become educated about what SIDS is, and how they can take an active role in protecting their infant from SIDS. In addition, SIDS has been called the silent killer because it strikes at night, and it happen suddenly when your infant is asleep. In fact, this can happen to an infant that up until their death they appeared to be in good health. Lastly, that is why even before you think about getting pregnant it is important to know what some of the risk factors are, so you can guard against them and hopefully your infant will not be at risk from dying of SIDS. An effective public awareness campaign that has been launched to educate parents, and to reverse a previous practice in which parents would put their infants to sleep on stomach is the Back to Sleep slogan which has led to a decrease in this practice.

Sources:

Santrock W., John Children 10th Edition.
Smith-Trawick, Jeffery. Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective, fourth edition.