Opinions on SIDS

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

I recently attended a conference on SIDS. I am curious as to what the general opinions of the public are concerning SIDS and it causes and what measures can be taken to reduce the numbers of deaths in the future. Thanks in advance for taking the time to post.

David

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Keep Babys Sleeping On Their Back

No smoking in the house.

[Deja Q]

2. Better chain the baby, spread-eagle, to its crib...

Unless restrained, babies can flip themselves over. :(

[China_cat]

4. From stomach to back

until they're about the age to sit on their own, not from back to stomach.

[China_cat]

3. So far, the one thing that has made a serious inroad

into cutting the numbers of SIDS babies has been the practice of putting infants on their back or side to sleep and not on the stomach.

Having lost a baby to SIDS, I wish I'd had that information back in 1966. Maybe my daughter would have lived.

It's a horrendous life experience and there's been a lot of reasons put forward for it...from medical problems in the mother during pregnancy to the woo-woo reason of the child just not liking the parents it was born to. I really doubt that the full cause will ever be known.

[fight4my3sons]

5. .

:hug: I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

8. I'm sorry for your loss.

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

David

[China_cat]

10. Thank you.

It's a long time ago now and the hurt is very faint. I still can't help wondering what she'd have been at 7, 10, 16, 21...42 this September.

[semillama]

19. I'm sorry you lost your daughter.

One of the folks in our office recently lost a baby to SIDS as well.

On a side note, someone actually told you that SIDS was caused because the baby didn't like the parents it was born too? That's got to be one of the most messed-up things I've heard. What sort of person could even think that?

[China_cat]

20. A very religious person.

In one of the sects that believe that baby souls choose the parents they want to be born to and when they find out they chose wrong they either leave very early (miscarriage or stillbirth explanation) or they don't find out till they take their first breath and decide then that they'll leave.

Yeah, it's very messed up.

[likesmountains 52]

6. What was the latest information at the conference? I agree that the "Back to Sleep"

program has had a big impact..

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

12. Don't want to stifle discussion.

So I'll hold off on stuff from the conference for a little while. I will say that back to sleep has made a difference.

David

[fight4my3sons]

7. Back to Sleep

when my kids were born we were given a lot of "Back to Sleep" information. My oldest born in 2002, the twins in 2004. I think that this campaign has reduced the numbers of deaths related to SIDS as well as a reduction of smoking in homes with infants.

[pansypoo53219]

9. well, my mom says i insisted on sleeping on my stomach and i still do.

i must have been a very pushy baby. was dressing myself about 1 and potty trained myself to. my brother made up for me tho.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. worrying about made me crazy as a young mother...

I swear when they went down to sleep, I checked them every 10 min. cause I was so freaked out they would stop breathing...

put baby on his back
no pillows
no extra toys or blankets

and check on them every 10 minutes... lol...

[jeanruss]

13. New Zealand

I read that in New Zealand they have solved this problem. They sell a brand of bedding for the crib that blocks a certain common fungus that interacts with the toxins in synthetic mattresses that forms a gas which is toxic to infants. Thousands have used this bedding and have not had one sids death. The book is "The Cot Death Cover-Up" by Dr, T. James Sprott, who did the research.

[Orrex]

15. Out of curiosity

What was the overall frequency of SIDS in New Zealand? If it were, say, 1 in 10,000 kids, and the fungus study examined 5,000 kids, then it's not surprising that none should have died of SIDS.

I personally know of three families that have lost babies to SIDS; in all cases the toxicology reports came back clear. If a mysterious bedding-based toxin were at fault, I suspect that something would have shown up in the labwork.

[jeanruss]

16. many cases

From what I have read, the numbers of children studied was very extensive. Much greater than 10,000. I don't have the exact statistics, but I am sure it is stated in his book.

[trotsky]

17. One interesting red flag raiser.

Every place I can find that talks about this "discovery" lo and behold also happens to sell something to wrap your baby's mattress in.

You'd think that with the massive distrust alties show in big pharma because they want to make money, they'd look at this stuff critically too, but nope.

[trotsky]

18. Releases from Australia and the US

From The National SIDS Council (Australia):

1. Cot mattress contamination with the fungus S. brevicalis is rare, and no more common in SIDS mattresses than in other used mattresses.
2. There is no evidence for the generation of gases from phosphorus, arsenic and antimony from cot mattresses, by S. brevecaulis, when tested using conditions relevant to an infant’s cot. (The group did, however, identify laboratory conditions, wholly unlike those that could occur in an infant’s cot, in which added antimony is biovolatilised, but to the much less toxic trimethylantimony and not to stibine).
3. There is no evidence of poisoning by phosphine, arsine, or stibine (or bethylated derivatives) in infants who have died of SIDS.
4. Low amounts of antimony can be detected in samples from the majority of live infants, and even newborn infants: the concentrations in the tissues of SIDS infants were not different from those dying from known causes. There are a number of sources of antimony in the domestic environment other than the fire retardant in cot mattress materials.
5. We have found no evidence that the changing rates of sudden infant death correspond to the introduction and removal of antimony – and phosphorus – containing fire retardant in cot mattresses.

From First Candle / SIDS Alliance (USA):

• There is no difference in antimony in babies that die of cot death and other babies;
• Antimony is found in most babies, even before birth (before they could have had any exposure to mattresses. It could come from maternal diet, but antimony is everywhere, including common household dust.
• No antimony was added to mattresses before 1988, and yet SIDS deaths were occurring pre-1988 at the rate of about 2,000 per year (now less than 500 per year.)
• The year after antimony was first added to mattresses, 1989, was the year that cot deaths began to decrease – at first a small decrease and then, after 1991 following campaigns to sleep babies on the back, a rapid decrease – cot deaths dropped in all by over 70% between 1988 and 1995.
• The theory claims that the decrease was due to publicizing advice to wrap mattresses is unfounded: as of 1993-1995, only 2% of babies were sleeping on wrapped mattresses; babies have also been found to die on wrapped mattresses.
• Cot death occurs in countries where no antimony has been added to mattresses.
• When comparing babies who die and babies who live, proportionately more of the babies who live sleep on PVC mattresses.
• According to the theory, death occurs because the toxic gas reduces acetylcholinesterase, leading to heart failure, but post mortem examinations of babies who die shows no reduction in acetylclolinesterase.
• The fungus, Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, that was said to be present on all cot mattresses and which was essential for the release of toxic gases, is actually hardly ever present on cot mattresses.

[Book Lover]

14. We discussed it in my "how to be a parent" class

The instructor impressed the "Back to sleep" phrase on us and that was the main thing. My child preferred to sleep on their stomach, and as there was no history of crib death in either family, we let the kid sleep as they liked (plus, no flat head to worry about). I hope this helps.