Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the leading cause of death for infants under the age of one, but scientists are now reporting that they’ve pinpointed the cause. It is now believed that infants who died from SIDS have a brain abnormality which prevents their bodies from realizing that they’re oxygen-deprived.
Although there is now evidence of a cause, there still isn’t a proposed cure. Scientists continue to recommend that babies be put to sleep on their backs.
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I read this a little too fast and missed the “on their backs” in the last sentence and thought, that is not funny at all.
On a more serious (and lucid) note, this is a good discovery that gives me a lot of hope, because things can’t be cured or even treated with certainty unless they know what’s causing them. I wonder if this abnormality is something that corrects itself as the baby gets older, or if there’s children and adults walking around with such a problem. I’m also curious if the serotonin link has connections with other disorders that are caused by problems with serotonin.
This research may be transferable to professions where oxygen deprivation is a work risk like firefighting and mining. It may also explain why some miners survive and others perish. I hope they continue the research to check if the abnormality persists into adulthood. That is some good work.
Heh. Now are they going to start giving babies antidepressants?
When I was a baby, they told parents to put their babies to sleep on their stomachs. I would turn over onto my back (I was able to do so at a very young age) and, if turned over again, would just again go to sleep on my back: the physician eventually said if he’s so insistent on sleeping on his back, he’ll probably be able to shift position if he needs to …
And then when the “lay the baby down on its back” advice came out, my parents figured I must have been one wise newborn (and wondered aloud what happened since …).
Interestingly, my gf’s baby went through a stage where she would insist on sleeping her side, and no amount of adjusting her sleeping position would change this. My parents are all but convinced that this baby is not a baby my gf just adopted but is somehow my own baby (the baby does look suspiciously like my mom).
That’s fantastic news. It will (hopefully) take so much guilt and so many accusations off of affected parents.
My aunt lost one of her children to SIDS, and co-runs a charity walk with the YMCA in his name. This is fantastic news.
Wonder what happened to the study that suggested that gases off plastic mattress covers were responsible for SIDS, and that cotton mattress ticking was a possible solution.
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