Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is marked by the sudden death of an infant that is unexpected by medical history, and remains unexplained after a thorough forensic autopsy and a detailed death scene investigation. An infant is at the highest risk for SIDS during sleep, which is why it is sometimes referred to by the terms cot death or crib death. The cause of SIDS is unknown, but some characteristics associated with the syndrome have been identified. The unique signature characteristic of SIDS is its lognormal age distribution that spares infants shortly after birth, the time of maximal risk for almost all other causes of non-trauma infant death. Other non-unique characteristics are its ~50% male excess and the fact that the caregivers were unaware in the preceeding 24-hours that the infant was at risk of imminent sudden death. There are many risk factors and medical causal relationships proposed for SIDS. Infants sleeping prone or exposed to tobacco smoke are at greater risk than infants sleeping supine or unexposed to tobacco smoke, respectively. Infanticide and child abuse cases may be misdiagnosed as SIDS due to lack of evidence. Accidental suffocations are sometimes misdiagnosed as SIDS.[citation needed] Genetics play a role, as SIDS is more prevalent in males. Safe sleep environments that reduce the risk of SIDS include proper ventilation, and putting infants on their back to sleep. Pacifiers and tummy time can help reduce known risk factors.
This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA
Latest Spotlight News
Efficient signal transmission at sensory system synapses
(Medical Xpress)—Neurophysiologist like to think of neurons as communicating with spikes. If that were the whole story, it might be possible to imagine spike codes which could then be used to estimate the ...
A shot in the arm for old antibiotics: Silver boosts antibiotics
Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported June 19 in Science Translational Me ...
Fate of the heart: Researchers track cellular events leading to cardiac regeneration
In a study published in the June 19 online edition of the journal Nature, a scientific team led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine visually monitored the dynami ...
Scientists create way to see structures that store memories in living brain
Oscar Wilde called memory "the diary that we all carry about with us." Now a team of scientists has developed a way to see where and how that diary is written.
Mindfulness – a mental training that develops sustained attention that can change the ways people think, act and feel – could reduce symptoms of stress and depression and promote wellbeing among school children, according ...
Validating maps of the brain's resting state
Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking. You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world ...
New MERS virus spreads easily, deadlier than SARS, researchers show
A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in ...
Researchers explain how neural stem cells create new and varied neurons
A new study examining the brains of fruit flies reveals a novel stem cell mechanism that may help explain how neurons form in humans. A paper on the study by researchers at the University of Oregon appeared ...
Wireless subretinal prostheses allows blind mice to see light
(Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers from the U.S. and Scotland has developed a new type of retinal prostheses designed to restore sight to blind patients. In their paper published in the journal Nature Co ...
Brain can plan actions toward things the eye doesn't see
People can plan strategic movements to several different targets at the same time, even when they see far fewer targets than are actually present, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a jour ...
