Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Symptoms of SIDS

• No symptoms or warnings for SIDS
• Death usually occurs when the infants are asleep.

Genetic causes of SIDS

How is the defect treated?

Environmental causes for SIDS

• Sometimes infants are unable to produce proper immune response to fight the bacteria, especially when they are really young about 2 to 4 months when there immune system are very vulnerable.

• Some infants who died of SIDS, had a mutation in the genes that was responsible for the transport of serotonin. ( A hormone that prompts an infant to gasp while suffocating)

• Children born to smoking mothers are more likely to get SIDS than mothers who smoke or drink alcohol during pregnancy.
• Although many studies suggest that the main cause is genetic they all seem to agree that there has to be some environmental to trigger it.
• Some environmental causes include temperature, the position the baby may be in , and also if the mother smoked or drank alcohol during pregnancy.

What is the disorder?

• Defect cannot be treated as the infant has already passed.
• Supportive help can be given to the parents of the deceased infant. In most cases, the parents may blame themselves for the infant’s death, which is not the case.
• Parents should be offered counselling and support to help them through the grieving process.
• Support groups or consulting a health-care professional are ideal ways to help the parents.

• Sudden Infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a birth defect which causes unexplained deaths in infants who are under a year old.
• Also known as "crib death"
• Is a medical phenomenon that's cause is still unknown.
• SIDS still remains to be a mystery.
• Unpredictable; even occurs to babies considered to be healthy with no illness prior to SIDS.

Is there any way to prevent the disorder? If so, what precautions are needed?

Causes of SIDS?

How is the disorder most commonly diagnosed?

• There aren’t treatments to help prevent SIDS but there are many precautions that can be taken to help reduce the risk of a baby getting SIDS.
• The most common and easiest precaution is putting a baby to sleep on its back rather than its side or stomach to make sure the baby is able to breathe properly and sleep safely.
• Ways to help prevent disorder can be to keep your baby from overheating, and keeping stuffed toys out of the crib.
• Another important precaution to take is to make sure the baby sleeps alone in its own crib.
• Lastly, the parent can also choose to breast feed the baby as well as use a pacifier to reduce the risk of SIDS.

• No EXACT causes for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
• Said to be due to abnormalities in the part of the infant's brain (Medulla) that controls the breathing and ability to wake up from sleep.
• There are no exact causes of SIDS but scientists believe that there are contributing factors
• Other Physical Factors include both respiratory and low birth weight.
• Infants who had a previous respiratory infection.

• Four methods to determine if an infant has died from SIDS.
• When all other causes of death have been ruled out, SIDS is usually the final answer.
• This means that SIDS is the "diagnosis of exclusion."

Community Support

Four Methods of Diagnosis

1. POST MORTEM LABORATORY TESTS

• can be performed to check if there could’ve have been any other cause of death besides SIDS.

2. AUTOPSY

• a thorough examination of the corpse

3. INVESTIGATION OF THE SCENE

• Interviews with the members of the family
• observing objects at the scene are crucial in helping to conclude a cause of death.

4. FAMILY HISTORY

• Can help lead to the cause of death.
• Important to know if a similar death has occurred in the family.
• Another sudden infant death or sudden cardiac arrest that may have occurred to another family member in the past would help come to a diagnosis.

Thank You!

What is the hope for a cure in the future?

When is the disorder most commonly diagnosed?

• No pre-diagnosis for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
• Only when the infant has passed away, can the diagnosis be made.

• There is no actual cure for SIDS, there have been theories that have resulted from many years of research on the disorder.
• Dr. Daniel Rubens, an anesthesiologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital and who is the founder is SIDS Research Guild, has spent 11 years conducting research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
• Proposed that SIDS correlates to an abnormality in the inner ear. The abnormality stops the baby being able to change positions when they have difficulty breathing
• This can cause infant to suffocate since they can’t change their position. Dr. Ruben believes that hearing tests should be done to the babies in the 48 hour time period after they are born. The hearing test would help determine if the baby has an abnormality in their ear.

What population does the defect most commonly affect directly or indirectly?