It’s not a happy holiday thought, but an important one: The number of babies who die of SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, surges by 33 percent on New Year’s Day.
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SIDS
Dec
21
2010
SIDS spikes 33% on New Year’s Day
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A baby’s sleep position is the best predictor of a misshapen skull condition known as deformational plagiocephaly, the development of flat spots on an infant’s head, according to recently published findings.
Analyzing the largest database to date available, with more than 20,000 children, researchers found the number of babies who developed flat-headedness has dramatically increased since 1992.
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Images show babies sleeping in positions that increase risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). More than one-third of the photos in women’s magazines depicted babies in unsafe sleep positions, according to a study published in the September 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The study also found that two-thirds of sleep environments depicted in these magazines were also unsafe.
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A recently published study demonstrates maternal smoking is associated with an impaired infant arousal process that may increase the risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The authors suggest maternal smoking has replaced stomach sleeping as the greatest modifiable risk factor for SIDS.
Results show that the progression from sub-cortical activation to cortical arousal was depressed in smoke-exposed infants, who had lower proportions of full cortical arousals from sleep and higher proportions of sub-cortical activations than infants born to non-smoking mothers.
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A study in the December 1, 2008 issue of the journal Sleep is the first to show that high levels of prenatal smoking exposure strongly modify sleep patterns in preterm neonates, which places infants at a higher risk for developmental difficulties that could persist throughout early and middle childhood.
Results indicate that preterm neonates born to heavy-smoking mothers who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day displayed disrupted sleep structure and sleep continuity. From 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. they slept almost two hours less than controls who were born to non-smoking mothers, and their sleep was more fragmented. Compared with controls, neonates born to both heavy and low smokers displayed more body movements and, as a result, more disturbed sleep.
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Infants who slept in a bedroom with a fan ventilating the air had a 72 percent lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) compared to infants who slept in a bedroom without a fan, according to findings from a study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.
This is the first study to examine an association between better air ventilation in infants’ bedrooms and reduced SIDS risk.
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Jun
16
2008
Smoking During Pregnancy Increases SIDS Risk
Clinicians have long considered smoking during pregnancy a major contributing risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but had not proved a casual relationship. A new study using rats provides the most direct evidence showing a causal link exists, at least, between prenatal smoking and SIDS.
Other contributing factors include disturbances of breathing and heart rate regulation and impaired arousal responses, thermal stress (primarily overheating from too high temperatures or too much clothing) and sleeping in the prone (belly-down) position.
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