Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

¶ … Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The articles explore separate studies about the topic. The author of this work discusses various aspects of each article and their merit. There were two sources used to complete this paper.

Each year in America thousands of parents walk into their infants room and discover that the child has died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The tragedy shocks and baffles the medical community as it continues to search for answers not only to what causes the syndrome but also what parents can do to reduce the risk of it striking their child. Studies around the globe have been conducted to this end with mixed results.

The determination of factors that influence the existence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is vital to the ability to stop its occurrence.

Study one

The first study examined whether the temperament of an infant has a bearing on whether that child is more prone to developing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

For the study, "healthy term, healthy preterm, and preterm infants with a neonatal history of apnea underwent polysomnography at 2 to 3 months. Arousal was induced using air-jet stimulation of the nostrils in active (AS) and quiet sleep (QS). Temperament was assessed using the Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire. Arousal thresholds were elevated in QS compared with AS in each group (p < .001), and preterm infants with a neonatal history of apnea were less arousable than healthy preterm infants (p < .05) (Adamson, 2002)."

Research already knows that the syndrome most often claims the lives of babies between one week and one-year-old. Studies have also shown that it happens more often to babies who were born preterm and to babies whose mothers smoke. The most common age for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to strike is two to four months of age. While maternal smoking, low birth weight and premature birth are all shown to be contributing risk factors to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the actual final mechanism to its triggering is still a mystery. This study focused on determining whether or not the baby's actual temperament contributes to the inability to rouse himself or herself during sleep, which is the ultimate cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome according to research.

"The aim of this investigation was to determine whether temperament could be used as an indicator of arousability from sleep in infants in the peak age range of SIDS and in infants at increased risk of SIDS. We hypothesized that the "threshold" dimension of temperament would be the most predictive measure of arousal threshold during sleep, given that this dimension was specifically designed as a measure of stimulus intensity required to evoke a discernible infant response (Adamson, 2002). "

The study examined 47 infants that were chosen from maternity wards in Australia. They were separated into three groups based on histories. The groups consisted of babies who were: healthy term infants, healthy preterm infants, and preterm infants who had a history of sleep apnea associated with slow heart beats.

"All preterm infants had normal cranial ultrasound scans at discharge. Healthy preterm infants required less than 2 days of assisted ventilation, and their subsequent clinical course was uneventful. Preterm infants with a history of apnea were ventilated for 15 [+ or -] 4 days (mean [+ or -] SEM, range 0-45 days) and had apnea/bradycardias (apnea >15 sec with associated bradycardia

The temperament referred in this study to the baby's individual reactive and self-regulatory capacity. This possesses biological elements but is impacted by environmental factors as well.

"Infants awoke significantly more often in response to the stimulus than they did spontaneously during stimulus calibration in both active sleep (AS) and quiet sleep (QS) (p < .05) (Adamson, 2002). "

But in all other areas there was no measurable difference in the infants. Therefore" the findings of this study do not support the use of temperament characteristics as indicators of arousability from sleep in either healthy term infants or infants at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at 2 to 3 months post term, the age at which SIDS risk is highest (Adamson, 2002)."

This study had many strengths but was weak when it came to the groups. It would have been beneficial to include a group of unhealthy term infants as well to be sure to round out all possible pre-syndrome scenarios.

The second study examined the impact that Co-sleeping have on SIDS if any.

The study used 427 infants in Korea between 12 and 24 months of age. Using an interview method it was determined that 377 of the infants co-slept with their parents during these ages. Co-sleeping is an accepted and encouraged practice in Korean culture. "When multiple candidates were available from a single family, the one who most satisfied this criterion was selected. We obtained consent from each of the interviewees (Hong-Moo, 2002). Among a total of 26 parents who refused the interview, their reasons for refusal were "have no time" in eighteen cases, "child is crying" in five cases, and "do not like to be interviewed" in three cases. The interviewees were 383 mothers (89.7%), 20 fathers (4.7%), 13 grandmothers (3.0%), and 11 other relatives (2.6%)(Hong-Moo, 2002)."

Research assistance consisted of medical students

"The age of those who were co-sleeping was younger than of those who were not ([chi square] = 49.2, p < .001). The birth order in the co-sleeping group was only child (36.6%), first-born (34.5%), and later-born (28.9%), but that in the non-cosleeping group was first-born (6.0%), later-born (46.0%), and only child (8.0%), showing a significant difference between the two groups ([chi square] = 16.7, p < .001). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in children's gender, past feeding patterns, and caretakers during the day (Hong-Moo, 2002)."