What are the Risk Factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?

SIDS is the sudden infant death syndrome. It is the unexplained death of an infant who is younger than 1 year old.

SIDS can strike without warning, even in healthy infants also. Most SIDS is related to sleep.

No single risk factor is likely to be sufficient to cause a SIDS death.

Rather, several risk factors combined may contribute to the sudden death of an infant.

SIDS occurs between 2 to 4 months of age and incidence increases during cold weather.

Risk factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome:

Stomach sleeping:

The important risk factor is stomach sleeping. Numerous studies have found a higher incidence of SIDS among babies placed on their stomachs to sleep than among those sleeping on their backs or sides.

Research shows that risk of SIDS is 1.7 to 12.9 percent higher if your child sleeps on his tummy instead of his back. Stomach sleeping puts pressure on your child’s jaw, therefore narrowing the airway and making it difficult in breathing.

Another reason that stomach sleeping increase the risk of SIDS is rebreathing his own exhaled air, especially if the infant is sleeping on a soft mattress or with a pillow near the face.

The soft surface may create a small enclosure around the baby’s mouth and trap exhaled air. As your child breaths exhaled air, the oxygen level in the body drops and carbon dioxide accumulates therefore leading to SIDS.

Several studies have shown that if your baby is used to sleep on his back and is placed to sleep on his stomach, his risk of SIDS increases.

If a parent or caretaker smokes:

Your baby is at high risk of SIDS, if any one parent of the baby or caretaker smokes. Your baby is at risk with the exposure to cigarette smoke.

Low birth weight or premature baby:

If your baby is born with less weight or born earlier, his risk of SIDS is higher.

Overheating while sleeping:

There’s strong evidence that becoming overheated can significantly raise your baby’s risk of SIDS.

Overheating can result from being in an overheated room, covering or wrapping your baby in too many blankets, putting a blanket over a baby’s head, or running a fever, according to Warren Guntheroth, SIDS expert and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle.

A mother who abused drugs or smoked during pregnancy:

The studies have shown that a mother who abused drugs or smoked during pregnancy have high risk factors of SIDS for her baby. Both drug use and smoking can affect the healthy development of baby during pregnancy.

Sleeping on a soft surface:

Several studies say that sleeping on soft surfaces increase risk of SIDS. Sofas, waterbeds, quilts, beanbags, comforters, and other soft surfaces are all unsafe for your baby to sleep on. The soft surfaces increase the chance that he’ll encounter problems with breathing and/or overheating.

Baby having a teen mother:

If the mother’s age is less than 20 or had pregnancy early in her teens, then the risk of baby with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is high.

Abnormalities in babies’ brain leads to SIDS:

The brain anomaly or irregularity refers to the portion of babies’ brain affecting reflex actions like breathing is assumed to lead to sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS.

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School believe the study might help understand how the death rate increases if the baby is lying on his belly.

Infants died of Sudden Infant death syndrome had abnormal serotonin producing nerve cells in the medulla oblongata.

The breathing reflex is influenced by serotonin production and manipulation within the brainstem. When infants sleep on their stomach, they receive less oxygen, which leads to accelerated breathing reflexes and can lead to SIDS.

For over a decade health recommendations were given to parents, to make babies sleep on their back, leading to a 50 percent decrease in SIDS deaths. However, SIDS is still the number one death cause for newborn babies.