Sudden Infant Death Syndrome News and Research

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New research challenges recommendation to restrict soothers in breastfeeding infants

Binkies, corks, soothers. Whatever you call pacifiers, conventional wisdom holds that giving them to newborns can interfere with breastfeeding.

30 Apr 2012

Safe, separate sleep environments for infants are critical to preventing SUIDs

Since 1992, the government's Back-to-Sleep Campaign has encouraged parents to place infants on their backs to sleep. Still, more than 4,500 infants die unexpectedly during sleep each year in the United States. Now, a University of Missouri injury prevention researcher says that safe, separate sleep environments for infants are critical to preventing sudden unexpected infant deaths.

20 Apr 2012

Key points about head shape asymmetry treatment

Parents are often the first to notice when their otherwise healthy infant slowly begins to develop a lopsided skull. Sometimes the change in head shape can look like a flattened section in the back of the skull, or off to one side if the baby prefers looking toward one direction. The incidence of head shape asymmetries has risen, likely related to the successful Back to Sleep campaign, which has saved countless infant lives since it was introduced in 1994 to prevent sudden infant death syndrome.

20 Apr 2012

Urban children more likely to be smokers

More than 75 percent of fourth-graders in urban and rural settings have measurable levels of a nicotine breakdown product in their saliva that documents their second-hand smoke exposure, researchers report.

22 Mar 2012

Glial cells inhibit growth of brainstem neurons

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered that brain cells commonly thought to play a supporting role actually are critically important for the growth of brainstem neurons responsible for cardiorespiratory control. The discovery has profound implications for the prevention and treatment of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), the leading cause of death in children aged one month to one year.

17 Feb 2012

Sharp rise in incidence of children hospitalizations due to physical abuse

In one year alone, over 4,500 children in the United States were hospitalized due to child abuse, and 300 of them died of their injuries, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study. The findings are published in the March 2012 issue of Pediatrics.

6 Feb 2012

Tips for parents to safeguard their children

They say parents know best, but what if you are a new parent who doesn't know it all quite yet? "Unfortunately, babies do not come with a safety manual. Sometimes parents do things that are well-intentioned but can be unsafe for their child," said Mary Evelyn O'Neil, M.D., pediatrician, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

23 Nov 2011

American Academy of Pediatrics expands sleep safety guidelines

Creating a sleep environment for a child is much more than choosing a pretty blanket; it truly can be a life-or-death decision. "Sleep is extremely important for all of us, but especially for infants. It's when kids grow. The nervous system gets a chance to rest and assimilate all the new experiences and information the baby has learned throughout the day," said Lisa Martin, MD, Loyola University Health System pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

17 Nov 2011

Many parents still place their infants in unsafe sleep settings

The nearly two-decades-long national "back to sleep" campaign that promotes infant safe sleep is credited with reducing the rate of sudden infant death syndrome in the United States.

8 Nov 2011

Study highlights profound impact of maternal separation on infants

A woman goes into labor, and gives birth. The newborn is swaddled and placed to sleep in a nearby bassinet, or taken to the hospital nursery so that the mother can rest. Despite this common practice, new research published in Biological Psychiatry provides new evidence that separating infants from their mothers is stressful to the baby.

3 Nov 2011

American Academy of Pediatrics expands guidelines on safe sleep for babies

Since the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended all babies should be placed on their backs to sleep in 1992, deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome have declined dramatically. But sleep-related deaths from other causes, including suffocation, entrapment and asphyxia, have increased.

19 Oct 2011

Roundup: Brewer defends request for exchange funds; Calif. governor signs maternity benefit bill

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona said Thursday that despite opposition from legislators from within her own party, she's seeking money from the federal government to implement a key part of the health care overhaul she opposes in order to prepare her state in case the law is upheld.

7 Oct 2011

Sleeping with baby: the dangers quantified

According to Victorian coroner John Olle there are an “alarming” number of infant co-sleeping deaths in Victoria. Figures reveal that 33 of the 72 unexplained child deaths in the past three years occurred in circumstances where a child shared a bed with an adult.

3 Oct 2011

Noninvasive method can detect sudden infant death syndrome, sleep apnea

University of Utah engineers who built wireless networks that see through walls now are aiming the technology at a new goal: noninvasively measuring the breathing of surgery patients, adults with sleep apnea and babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

19 Sep 2011

Kids around smokers lose more school days than peers

A new study says that children whose parents smoke tend to miss more school than their classmates with non-smoking parents — possibly because of a higher rate of respiratory infections.

6 Sep 2011

First 5 LA awards Valley Presbyterian Hospital $500,000 to improve breastfeeding rates

First 5 LA announced today that it is awarding a grant of nearly $500,000 to Valley Presbyterian Hospital to improve the nutrition and health of the hospital's youngest patients by developing and maintaining policies and procedures to encourage increased breastfeeding among mothers of newborns.

19 Aug 2011

Hospitals not doing enough to encourage breastfeeding among new mothers: CDC report

According to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hospitals are not doing enough to encourage breastfeeding among new mothers.

3 Aug 2011

Study looks at bed-sharing and effect on child behavior

According to a new study parents who let their toddlers sleep in the same bed as them are not slowing their learning and behavior development.

19 Jul 2011

Bedsharing in toddlerhood does not negatively affect children's behavior and cognition

A study led by Lauren Hale, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, concludes that there do not appear to be any negative associations between bedsharing in toddlerhood and children's behavior and cognition at age 5.

18 Jul 2011

New BGU system could prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

A new system using video and computer software to monitor a baby that could be used to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), as well as for telemedicine applications, has been developed by two students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

14 Jul 2011