New SIDS Research Will Have Parents Scratching Their Heads

By Rebecca Gruber
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Putting babies to sleep on their backs has drastically reduced SIDS rates, but it isn't the whole story when it comes to preventing the deadly syndrome. Factors like smoke exposure, breastfeeding, access to prenatal care, and underlying biological issues also come into play when determining a child's risk according to a new study published today in the journal Pediatrics.

While the Back to Sleep campaign has decreased the number of SIDS deaths, Dr. Richard Goldstein, of Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and author of the study, said, "I work with a lot of parents whose children have died from SIDS, and the general climate is one where, because of the success of controlling the sleep environment, the parents often feel that they are responsible for the deaths of their children. And while it is certainly the case that it is important to put your child in the safest environment possible, and that approach has had a real impact on mortality, the overall idea — the basic theory of what happens with SIDS — is a little more complicated than that."

He outlines three major factors that can contribute to a baby's SIDS risk:

  1. Intrinsic Factors: Babies born prematurely or exposed to smoking in the womb appear to have a higher SIDS risk.
  2. Age Factors: Babies younger than 6 months old are at greatest risk.
  3. Sleeping Environment: This includes the position in which they sleep and the type of bedding in the crib.

Though the sleep environment factors have been addressed by the Back to Sleep campaign — and they are working! — Dr. Goldstein said factors like "a decrease in rates of smoking during pregnancy, an increased rate of breastfeeding and increased access to prenatal care" all helped too.

He and his fellow researchers believe that SIDS is based on a "triple risk" when all three of the aforementioned factors are at play. And while things like the sleeping environment can be controlled, when external factors — aka "infants with an underlying vulnerability" — are paired with one of the known factors, SIDS occurs.

The Takeaway

So what's a parent of an infant to do? The simple answer is to eliminate all known factors that humans can control — secondhand smoke, pillows and blankets in the crib, belly sleeping, etc. — but know that doing so does not completely protect your child. Until doctors can detect the underlying issues, we can only do so much.