I have chosen to write about SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). I
chose this topic because it was one of my greatest fears with having a pre-term
baby. I also have a cousin that lost her first born to SIDS. SIDS is a medical
condition that causes a baby to die suddenly. When I saw the charts below I decide that I
would share Germany as another part of the world because at one point it had
the highest rate of SIDS.
There was a study done over 3 years
it was a case-control study. There was a total of 1331 infants in the study out
of this 333 were sudden infant death syndrome cases.
Only 4.1% of the infants were placed
on their stomach to sleep, those infants were at a high risk of sudden infant
death syndrome. Those who were unaccustomed to sleeping on their stomachs were
at very high risk, as were those who turned to sleeping on their stomachs. Bed
sharing (especially for infants younger than 13 weeks); duvets; sleeping prone
on a sheepskin; sleeping in the house of a friend or a relative (compared with
sleeping in the parental home); and sleeping in the living room (compared with
sleeping in the parental bedroom) increased the risk for sudden infant death
syndrome; pacifier use during the last sleep was associated with a significantly
reduced risk of sudden infant death syndrome. This study has clarified the risk
factors for sudden infant death syndrome in a population where few infants
sleep on their stomach. This study supports the current recommendations of the
American Academy of Pediatrics. If I ever work with infants I will be able to
explain to parents the importance of their infants sleeping on their backs and
to help them better understand SIDS.
The AAP
makes the following recommendations:
In 2011,
the American Academy of
Pediatrics expanded its recommendations from focusing only on SIDS to
focusing on a safe sleep environment that can reduce the risk of all
sleep-related infant deaths, including SIDS.
- supine
positioning,
- use
of a firm sleep surface,
- breastfeeding,
- room-sharing
without bed-sharing,
- routine
immunizations,
- consideration
of using a pacifier,
- avoidance
of soft bedding,
- avoidance
of overheating,
- avoidance
of exposure to tobacco smoke,
- avoidance of exposure to alcohol,
- avoidance of exposure to illicit drugs
References:
Hi Chenieka
ReplyDeleteI also chose to look at SIDS, as it is one of my greatest fears that an infant should succumb to it on my watch. I particularly liked your link to the first website: http://www.sidscenter.org/Statistics.html
I have booked marked it for future reading. Thank you
Hi Chenieka,
ReplyDeleteThis is beneficial to me because I am going to share it with my former co-workers who work in an infant room in a daycare. They were recently cited on things that were not correct in their rooms. They are really working hard to make their rooms safe for infants. This information will be very useful to them. Thanks
Chenieka, Thank you for sharing your personal story as to why you chose SIDS as your topic this week. The sleeping recommendations for babies is so important to communicate to parents. I liked the charts that you included. They were very informative.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for sharing this great information on SIDS. There probably is not enough information out there for us all to understand why this has to happen. However, with research and feedback we are learning and thank you for sharing the information for all of us to share with our colleagues.
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