Sudden Infant Death Syndrome I Essay -- Crib Death SIDS

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is a traumatic and tragic disease that affects thousands of babies throughout the world every year. There is no way of explaining the death of a child that has SIDS and there are no real ways of predicting if it could happen to any baby. What makes SIDS even worse is that the source of what exactly may be the cause of it is still unknown. Advanced research in the last 30 years has dramatically reduced the number of deaths. SIDS not only affects the infants but also the families of the infant and it proves to be a very tough and emotional experience for them. So what exactly is SIDS? The term SIDS was finally defined in 1969 as the sudden death of an infant or child, which is unexpected by history and in which a through post-mortem examination fails to demonstrate an adequate cause of death (Culbertson 3). Basically this is another way of saying that it is not known why these babies die. SIDS is not a new disease contrary to what some people might believe, but it has been happening throughout time, unexplained deaths of babies are even recorded in the bible. SIDS was probably the most neglected disease ever recorded in history of man. It wasn't until recently that major steps were taken to figure out why babies were dying so unexpectedly and what could we do to prevent it from happening. So what exactly causes SIDS and is there anything we can do to prevent it? Well as of right now, the cause of SIDS is unknown. We do not know what causes SIDS and there are no consistent warning signs that might alert us to the risk of it. However, scientists and researchers have discovered many things that might attribute to the causes of SIDS. SIDS almost always occurs at night when the infant is sleeping. A higher incidence of SIDS is seen among premature and low birth weight children. Women who smoke and let their children be exposed to smoke give their children a higher risk of SIDS. Low birth rates among children have a higher chance of getting SIDS. Finally there is a much higher rate of SIDS when infants are placed on their stomach to sleep.(Culbertson, 8-10) One of the biggest recommendations physicians make to new parents today is to let their babies sleep on their back. Putting them on their back greatly decreases the risk of SIDS to their children. These are just some of the things that have been... ...2). Everything we know, all the information that is produced and published is all just a theory because we don't even know what happened and what caused the death. So where do we go from here? What can be done to stop this terrible disease? Who knows. All we can do is sit back and hope someone's 'theory'; is the right one and be thankful that this disease only affects 1-3 infants per thousand born. There are so many questions but not nearly enough answers and until that day we can only do what the experts tell us to do and hopefully the SIDS disease will almost become non-existent. Culbertson, Krous, Bendell, ed. 1988 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Medical Aspects and Psychological Management. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press Bergman, Abraham B. M.D. 1986 The 'Discovery'; of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Lessons in the Practice of Political Medicine. New York: Praeger Publishers Guntheroth, Warren G. M.D. 1989 CRIB DEATH : The Sudden Infant Syndrome Death Second Revised Edition Mount Kisco, New York Futura Publishing Company. Injury Prevention Committee, Canadian Pedrictric Society. Reducing the Risk of Sudden Infant Death. Journal of Pedriactics and Child Death