Researchers Pinpoint Reason Infants Die From SIDS

[fredjr82]

I remember being nervous about SIDS with my kiddos. I always remember that of they cried loud, their lungs were probably developed. Underdeveoloped lungs someone told me, was the most likely cause of SIDS. Apparently not

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) accounts for about 37% of sudden unexpected infant deaths a year in the U.S., and the cause of SIDS has remained largely unknown. On Saturday, researchers from The Children's Hospital Westmead in Sydney released a study that confirmed not only how these infants die, but why.

SIDS refers to the unexplained deaths of infants under a year old, and it usually occurs while the child is sleeping. According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep the child from startling or waking up.

The Sydney researchers were able to confirm this theory by analyzing dried blood samples taken from newborns who died from SIDS and other unknown causes. Each SIDS sample was then compared with blood taken from healthy babies. They found the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep

 

[swagsurfer02]

There were so many things that they told you to do to try to prevent SIDS but it was all just a guessing game. You were hoping as a parent it just didn’t happen to you.

 

[fredjr82]

There were so many things that they told you to do to try to prevent SIDS but it was all just a guessing game. You were hoping as a parent it just didn’t happen to you.

Agreed and now we see it was all just "dumb luck" they were born without the ability to wake themselves when in trouble. Scary shit. Hopefully modern medicine can help those make BChE that can't on their own

 

[ping72]

Agreed and now we see it was all just "dumb luck" they were born without the ability to wake themselves when in trouble. Scary shit. Hopefully modern medicine can help those make BChE that can't on their own

Yeah, hopefully they can find a treatment.

Obviously they can test to see if your baby is at higher risk...but what good is that info if you can’t do much about it...other than ALWAYS watching your baby sleep and hope they don’t stop breathing. That would be an unbearable hell.

 

[fredjr82]

Yeah, hopefully they can find a treatment.

Obviously they can test to see if your baby is at higher risk...but what good is that info if you can’t do much about it...other than ALWAYS watching your baby sleep and hope they don’t stop breathing. That would be an unbearable hell.

No kidding. I remember when they finally slept for 4-6 hours straight. Thought I'd died and gone to Heaven.

Back then at least I had peace of mind if I took the steps to prevent (the ones I thought were preventing). Now it seems like you have nothing but hope on your side.

I love having my kids and couldn't imagine if something ever happened to them. Part of me is a little envious though, of those that didn't have kids and don't have that worry.

 

[HawkeyeGenius]

I remember the first time I had my son alone all night when my wife had to travel for work. He was four months old, and I was literally up every hour checking on him.

 

[FAUlty Gator]

I remember the first time I had my son alone all night when my wife had to travel for work. He was four months old, and I was literally up every hour checking on him.

The first two years of your child's life is a living nightmare.

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

The first two years of your child's life is a living nightmare.

Not so CSB time: My youngest daughter had a near death experience about 18 hours after birth. A nurse at the hospital found her unresponsive and basically “blue“. She was resuscitated and we went on a years long journey of multiple weeks in the NICU, various monitors for months at home, neurology checkups, etc. Scariest and most helpless time of my life.

That fragile baby girl is now 17, a dual sport athlete and taking a heavy AP course load.

What I learned from this experience: infancy can be very scary, nurses are amazing and donations to the children’s hospital of your choice will never be a waste.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

I remember the first time I had my son alone all night when my wife had to travel for work. He was four months old, and I was literally up every hour checking on him.

I remember being asleep in bed and we had our first son in a bassinet beside our bed. I thought I heard him make a strange noise. Not sure if it was really him making the noise or just something I heard in my head in between being awake and asleep.

But I jumped up flipping on the lights and was furiously trying to wake him up. He woke up and cried about it.

Scary thing.

 

[FAUlty Gator]

Chuck Norris had SIDS.

 

[Colonoscopy]

Yeah, hopefully they can find a treatment.

Obviously they can test to see if your baby is at higher risk...but what good is that info if you can’t do much about it...other than ALWAYS watching your baby sleep and hope they don’t stop breathing. That would be an unbearable hell.

I'd say it's almost worse now knowing...

 

[BrunoMars420]

So are these owelets pointless then since is it just dumb luck?

 

[bdcolt45er]

So are these owelets pointless then since is it just dumb luck?

I would argue these are unnecessary. Some people may argue that they help with their anxiety but the opposite can be true if they alarm unnecessarily or if people become too obsessed with the numbers.
Also the measures that were implemented in the 90s has seemed to work. The rate went from 130 per 100,000 to 35 per 100,000.

Some of this might be driven by more deaths being classified as suffocation rather than SIDs.