SIDS is the sudden death from respiratory arrest or cardiac arrest in an apparently healthy infant between the ages of one week and one year, while an autopsy does not reveal the cause of death. Sometimes SIDS is called “death in the cradle”, often the child dies in his sleep. For every 1,000 children born, the rate is 0.2-1.5%, that is, on average, out of one thousand children, one child dies from SIDS.
The exact causes of SIDS have not yet been established. It is assumed that those who died from SIDS lack a gene encoding a protein that regulates neural connections and the passage of neural signals that contribute to a change in the rhythm of breathing when carbon dioxide accumulates in the blood. Immaturity of the respiratory center and the autonomic nervous system are possible causes of SIDS. In recent decades, factors correlated with sudden infant death syndrome have been studied.
- Use of alcohol or drugs (heroin).
- Complicated delivery (with breech presentation of the fetus; the risk increases by 7 times)
- Prolonged labor (more than 16 hours; the risk increases by 2 times)
- Violation of intrauterine development
- premature babies
- Inability to breastfeed mother
- Male gender of the child (61% of SIDS cases occur in boys)
- Child’s age (maximum SIDS refers to age 2-4 months)
- Sleep in separate rooms with parents
Risk factors for SIDS:
- Sleep on your stomach.
- Excessive wrapping, warm clothes. It should be noted that supercooling the child in terms of the risk of SIDS is also not recommended.
- Too soft base of the bed (cradle).
- Already occurring dangerous symptoms (unreasonable respiratory or cardiac arrest) in a child or his brothers and sisters.
- A single mother under the age of 20 who did not see a doctor for prenatal care.
- Diseases of the mother during pregnancy.
- Insufficient interval between the first and second pregnancy (less than 1 year), miscarriages preceding the last pregnancy.
- Maternal smoking, alcohol or drug use (heroin).
- Smoking in a child’s room – the risk of death is 8.5 times higher.
- A smoking nursing mother and a smoking father provoke the development of SIDS 5.2 times more often than in healthy families.
- A mother who smoked during pregnancy increases the risk of death of her baby by 3.5 – 4 times.
- Smoking all family members 3.5 times.
- If only one of the parents smokes in the house (including the mother under the condition of artificial feeding), then the risk of SIDS is 2.5 times higher.
- A smoking mother increases the risk of sudden death by 1.4 times.
- If a smoking mother practices joint sleep with a child, then a fivefold increase in the risk of SIDS is added to the above figures.
