AdventureDad

I'm a confident father of two children but there is one thing that scares me.  The thought of SIDS.  What scares me is the horrible thought of finding my daughter dead in the crib one morning and not knowing what went wrong.  The medical community have been unable to find a cause for SIDS despite extensive research.  But there might be light at the end of the tunnel according to a short article in todays New York Times.  In the article "New Study Suggests Cause Of Sudden Infant Deaths" Benedict Carey writes that researchers have found deficits in a certain area of the brain and believe that this might be an important clue in the search for a cure.

 

First a few facts regarding this horrible infant death.  Researchers have so far found  contributing factors to SIDS but no certain cause.  A short summary of SIDS, "SIDS is the sudden death of an infant under one year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including performance of a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history". The most important action towards  decreasing the risk for SIDS is having children sleep on their back and without  bulky blankets.  This advice  and increased information has drastically cut the risk of SIDS in the past ten years.  Breastfeeding has been found to also decrease SIDS significantly.  Safe co-sleeping can  lower the risk although most parents practice co-sleeping in such a way that the risk instead increases.  Factors known to increase the risks are smoking, drinking, and drugs during the pregnancy. Infants sleeping on their stomach on bulky blankets also increase the risk as does exposure to tobacco smoke after birth.  A more complete list over ways to reduce SIDS can be found here.

 

The NYT article points out that researchers have found differences in the brain of infants who died of SIDS.

They also believe that these differences might be genetic and will make finding a cure less difficult.  It would  be incredible if researchers could produce a test at birth which diagnosed children in the risk zone  and gave them necessary medication or advice.  Can you imagine what a victory that would be for the medical community and parents everywhere?!

Before we had our son I was prepared for something horrible  happening to him at some stage and I accepted that risk.   But I never considered the mental aspects of SIDS.  I've often thought of my son dying of SIDS. This may sound weird but it was especially worrying since things were going  so well during his first year.  I remember repeatedly going into his room to hear him breathe and getting all choked up just thinking of the possibility of him passing away in his sleep for no apparent reason.  I pictured myself walking into his room, touching his cold head, and realizing he was dead.  My fears are of course irrational, I'm aware that the risks for SIDS are extremely low but I never could shake off my concerns completely.  The mental aspects of SIDS are especially difficult for parents, the feeling of not knowing who or what to blame can be heartbreaking.  Many end up blaming themselves as the unanswered questions continue to pile up. 

But evidence of a clear biological basis for SIDS deaths may comfort many parents who blame themselves and provide a reason to hope for more concrete benefits. “For parents like us, I think we are looking forward to the next step, to get to the point where we’d have a screening test and a cure,” said Robert Kossar, a father in New Jersey who, with his wife, Michelle, started the Ryan Wolfe Kossar Foundation in honor of their infant son, who died of SIDS in 2004.

I hope researchers will continue their research after these promising results and that we one day can find a cure and give parents  closure and some answers to their worst nightmare.