The Facts Of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Of all the heartbreaking diseases and illnesses in this world of ours, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, has to be one of the most tragic, especially to a new family so full of hope for the future of their newborn child. This article is going to take a look at this terrible problem and try to offer some answers to those who have suffered through it or fear that it may someday happen to them. It is my hopes that after reading this, those with infant children will know what to look out for.

Probably the most puzzling thing about SIDS is what it technically is, which is the sudden death of a child under the age of one that appears to have no apparent cause after an autopsy is performed and after looking at the past medical history of the child. This is probably the most frustrating thing about SIDS. There are so few answers and ultimately, families are left shattered, confused, and in almost all cases, devastated by this.

Even though nobody is quite certain what causes SIDS, it is believed, after extensive research into this problem, that part of the cause may have to do with a brain abnormality that makes it so that they will be more likely to suffer from SIDS than a so called "normal" child, though nothing has been determined conclusively.

However, there are statistics on this disease that suggest when SIDS is most likely to occur. In the children under one year of age, the majority of deaths seem to occur between the ages of two and four months. The alarming stat is that 90% of SIDS victims die before six months of age. After the sixth month, the chances of a child dying from SIDS greatly decreases.

The most frustrating part of this whole disease is that there is just no way of knowing if one child is more susceptible to dying from SIDS than another child. However, there are a few things that we can do in order to help prevent a child from dying from SIDS such as having the child sleep on its back, making sure the child sleeps on a firm mattress, making sure that the child's head isn't covered while sleeping, never sleeping with your child, providing a pacifier at bedtime, not smoking during pregnancy, breast feeding and regular health care for the child.

For families suffering from the death of a young child, there are support groups available. The First Candle/SIDS alliance can help in being a comfort to families who have been victim of this terrible disease.

In the meantime, research is being done to try to determine the cause of SIDS and hopefully to find a way to prevent this horrible syndrome from ever striking another family again.

I personally pray that day comes very soon.

To YOUR Health,

Steve Wagner

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