What Every Parent Needs to Know About SIDS (2024)

FAQs

What Every Parent Needs to Know About SIDS? ›

Here's how parents can help reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related deaths: Get early and regular prenatal care. Place your baby on a firm, flat mattress to sleep, never on a pillow, waterbed, sheepskin, couch, chair, or other soft surface. Cover the mattress with a fitted sheet and no other bedding.

Ninety percent of SIDS deaths occur within the first 6 months of life, with the rate peaking between 1 to 4 months. Death comes suddenly and unpredictably, usually during sleep. In most cases, the baby seems healthy before death. Currently, the cause of SIDS is unknown.

Place babies on their backs to sleep for naps and at night.

Babies who sleep on their backs are at lower risk for SIDS than babies who sleep on their stomachs or sides. If baby usually sleeps on their back, putting them on the stomach or side to sleep, like for a nap, increases the risk for SIDS by up to 45 times.

Questions Parents Frequently Ask • “Was I to blame?” • “Did my child suffer pain?” • “Why did my child die?” • “What will happen next?” Never Say • “I know how you feel.” • “You can always have other children.” • “You have other children.” • “This happened because . . .” • “You will feel better in time.”

SIDS is less common after 8 months of age, but parents and caregivers should continue to follow safe sleep practices to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death until baby's first birthday. More than 90% of all SIDS deaths occur before 6 months of age.

SIDS is the leading cause of death among infants 1 month to 1 year old, and remains unpredictable despite years of research. Even so, the risk of SIDS can be greatly reduced.

While there's no way to completely prevent SIDS, one thing you can do to lower your baby's risk is to make sure they see their healthcare provider for all of their routine well-baby care visits. At these appointments, your baby's provider will make sure your baby is healthy and developing as expected.

The cause of SIDS is unknown. But it may be caused by problems in the area of an infant's brain that controls breathing and waking up from sleep. Researchers have found some things that might put babies at higher risk. They've also found some things you can do to help protect your child from SIDS .

As unsettling as it is, SIDS can't be caught or predicted ahead of time. But you can protect your baby by avoiding known risk factors, including: An unsafe sleep environment. Infants who sleep on their tummies or sides; sleep with loose bedding, pillows or soft toys; or sleep in a too-warm room may be more susceptible.

What is the single most significant risk factor for SIDS? ›

Sleep position:

Babies placed to sleep on their stomachs or sides are at higher risk for SIDS. Babies who are used to sleeping on their backs but who are placed on their stomachs or sides for sleep, like for a nap, are at very high risk of SIDS.

By the time a baby turns 12 months old, the risk of sudden death is negligible. Here are recommendations for reducing the risk of SIDS: a) Avoid exposing your baby to cigarette smoke before or after birth. b) Avoid falling asleep with your baby in dangerous environment (bed, chair, or sofa).

Findings consistent with SIDS include the following: Serosanguineous watery, frothy, or mucoid discharge from mouth or nose. Reddish-blue mottling from postmortem lividity on the face and dependent portions of the body. Marks on pressure points of the body.

First is the developmental window of vulnerability. SIDS is most common at 2-4 months of age when the cardiorespiratory system of all infants is in rapid transition and therefore unstable. So, all infants in this age range are at risk for dysfunction of neurological control of breathing.

SIDS has no symptoms or warning signs. Babies who die of SIDS seem healthy before being put to bed. They show no signs of struggle and are often found in the same position as when they were placed in the bed.

SIDS usually occurs when a baby is asleep, although it can occasionally happen while they're awake.

Even though the thought can be deeply unsettling, experts agree that there aren't any warning signs for SIDS. And since SIDS isn't diagnosed until after an infant has died and the death has been investigated, you can't catch SIDS while it's happening and stop it, for instance, by performing CPR.

How can I stop this? You can't but don't worry. Once a baby can roll over by themselves, the brain is mature enough to alert them to breathing dangers, and by the time the child is 6 months old, the improved motor skills will help to rescue the baby, so the SIDS risk is greatly reduced.