Discuss the possible causes of and contributing factors to SIDS.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In SIDS, a basically healthy baby, usually between two and four months of age, dies while asleep. Sleeping position can play a major role in many cases of SIDS. Pediatrics recommended putting infants to sleep on their backs instead of on their stomachs. No single factor appears to account for all cases of SIDS. Once sleeping position was eliminated as a cause, genetics appeared to play a larger role (Christensen et al., 2017). Children dying from SIDS share abnormalities of the brainstem and in the serotonergic systems of the medulla in particular (Paine, Jacques, & Sebire, 2014; Paterson et al., 2006). In their triple-risk model of SIDS, Filiano and Kinney (1994) argue that SIDS involves a vulnerable infant in a critical period of development exposed to an external stressor. Among the vulnerabilities of infants are race and gender (Paterson et al., 2006). African American babies are twice as likely to die from SIDS as white babies, and Native American infants are three times as likely to die from SIDS as white babies (National Institutes of Health [NIH], n.d.). Boys are at higher risk than girls (National Institutes of Health [NIH], n.d.). In addition to sleeping position, exposure to cigarette smoke (Klonoff-Cohen et al., 1995) and sharing a bed with parents (Paterson et al., 2006) might act as external stressors.