How did the "experts" discover the reasons for SIDS?

Question

I know they say not to cosleep, not to put blankets or stuffed animals in bed with your baby, not to smoke around your baby, etc. How did they come up with this? My cousin did none of the above and his daughter still died at 3 months because of SIDS. I coslept with both of my daughters and neither of them died of sids. How do they know for sure though?

Answer 1

Nobody knows for sure. The SIDS studies are all correlation studies, as far as I can tell, which means that there are a lot of SIDS babies in smoking homes, etc, NOT that the smoking itself necessarily causes SIDS. There may or may not be a cause-and-effect relationship between any of the risk factors and SIDS. I have heard recently that the four things you can do (not in order of importance) that can help REDUCE the chances of SIDS are 1) not smoking, 2) putting baby on their back or side instead of belly, 3) CO-SLEEPING (I have heard that this is probably because the mother is right there and more aware of baby's movements/breathing while sleeping), and 4) breastfeeding. Of course, co-sleeping isn't for everyone (I'm still co-sleeping with my 13-month old son). Some people are heavy sleepers, and for those people, co-sleeping can be dangerous.

In the end, nobody really knows what causes SIDS, but following the guidelines can help reduce the chances.

Answer 2

What Causes SIDS?

While there are still no adequate medical explanations for SIDS deaths, current theories include: (1) stress in a normal baby, caused by infection or other factors; (2) a birth defect; (3) failure to develop; and/or (4) a critical period when all babies are especially vulnerable, such as a time of rapid growth.
Many new studies have been launched to learn how and why SIDS occurs. Scientists are exploring the development and function of the nervous system, the brain, the heart, breathing and sleep patterns, body chemical balances, autopsy findings, and environmental factors. It is likely that SIDS, like many other medical disorders, will eventually have more than one explanation.



Can SIDS Be Prevented?

No, not yet. But, some recent studies have begun to isolate several risk factors which, though not causes of SIDS in and of themselves, may play a role in some cases. We share this information with you in the interest of providing parents with the latest medical evidence from research in the U.S. and other countries in the hope of giving your baby the best possible chance to thrive. (It is important that, since the causes of SIDS remain unknown, SIDS parents refrain from concluding that their child care practices may have caused their baby's death.)

Answer 3

I can't tell you how they came up with these reasons, but I can tell you that life is a game of percentages, not absolutes. That means that if you co-sleep with your babies, you increase the chances of them being injured or killed while you both sleep. If you smoke around them, the odds of them dieing go up. The same goes for the stuffed animals thing. So doing everything right isn't a guarantee that they won't die of SIDS. Doing everything wrong isn't a death sentence, either. The best that you can do is influence the chances that they will not die of SIDS.

Think of it this way - you can probably drive to work tomorrow without wearing a seat belt, and get there with no problems. If you're 50 or older, you probably didn't wear a seat belt at all for the first 10 years of life. And most of us made it through that with no problems. But you still hear of people who die in car crashes, despite seat belts, despite air bags, despite cars with primary and secondary crumple zones engineered into them, despite fuel pumps that shut off to prevent fires, despite frames that are engineered to be essentially roll cages.

Life happens - you just have to learn to deal with the percentages.

Answer 4

They did autopsies on the babies and discovered an anomally in the brains of the ones that died of SIDS. Apparently, those babies didn't produce a certain chemical when their carbon dioxide/oxygen levels were off, and therefore didn't wake up and turn their heads to fix the problem and return their oxygen levels to normal.

Answer 5

stuff like that is all based upon statistical analysis

ie in most cases there were blankets present or animals or parents smoked

so to reduce risk you stop these things

honestly they dont know for sure but are just trying to reduce risk based upon past cases