Emergency Live - Pre-Hospital Care, Ambulance Services, Fire Safety and Civil Protection Magazine

SIDS manifests itself in the sudden and unexpected death of an apparently healthy infant, often in the complete absence of premonitory signs and plausible causes.

Almost always the death remains unexplained even after post-mortem examinations.

Grief support for families affected by SIDS is important, as the infant’s death is sudden and apparently without cause, resulting in an unpredictable and unexplained tragedy that leaves the parents in inconsolable grief, resistant even to long sessions of psychotherapy and antidepressant drug support.

Since cot death has no witnesses, it is often associated with an investigation in search of possible guilt on the part of one or both parents.

The syndrome affects children in the first 12 months of life and is still the leading cause of death of healthy babies born in industrialised countries.

In Italy it had an incidence of about 0.5 per thousand in 2011 (23 children under 5 years of age, 1.3% of total deaths in the reference period).

Data for the years 2004-2011 for the Piedmont region show an average SIDS mortality rate of 0.09 per 1000.

It is the most common cause of death between one month and one year of age.

About 90 per cent of cases occur before the age of six months, with the peak of cases between two months and four months of age.

SIDS is more common in boys than girls.

SIDS accounts for about 80% of sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs).

Many parents wonder if it is possible to tell by a few small signs that their baby is at risk of being affected by this syndrome, so that they can intervene in time?

The answer is unfortunately no.

There are no detectable symptoms of SIDS, infants who die from this syndrome do not seem to suffer from any form of pain or show any physical evidence.

Some researchers have tried to hazard a correlation between flu-like respiratory symptoms, but the issue is still highly debated.

Although there are no certain causes or symptoms, there is evidence of the existence of behaviours and conditions that may be factors that increase the risk of SIDS, and others that are, on the contrary, protective factors (lowering the risk).

Faced with the impossibility of determining an unambiguous cause, epidemiological studies have been carried out which have found the existence of some preventable and some non-preventable risk factors; none of these, however, is a specific cause of SIDS.

The requirement for a combination of factors including an underlying genetic susceptibility, a specific time frame in the child’s development and an environmental stressor has been proposed.

These environmental stresses may include sleeping on the stomach or on the side, overheating and exposure to tobacco smoke.

Accidental suffocation during bed sharing (also known as co-sleeping) or suffocation from soft objects may also play a role.

Another non-modifiable risk factor is 39 weeks gestation.

Other causes include infections, genetic disorders and heart problems.

While child abuse in the form of intentional suffocation may be misdiagnosed as SIDS, this is believed to account for less than 5% of cases.

Differences in frequency have been found in correlation with gender and age of the infant, ethnic origin, cultural and economic level of the parents.

Methods that completely reduce the risk of SIDS are not currently available, although there are several interventions that can significantly reduce the incidence of SIDS in children.

Numerous studies show that one of the main factors is a sleeping position other than supine (the risk is much higher if the infant sleeps on its stomach, or on its side).

It is therefore strongly recommended to always put the baby to sleep on its back (back against the bed, belly up).

It is estimated that if the safer habit of having babies sleep supine (on their stomachs) instead of prone (on their stomachs) had become widespread as early as the 1970s, i.e. when the first scientific and clinical evidence on the subject was available, the lives of about 50,000 babies in Western countries alone could have been saved.

Preventable risk conditions for SIDS include:

Parental bed sharing appears to increase the incidence of the syndrome, particularly if:

Second-hand smoke is correlated with the syndrome: children who die from SIDS tend to have higher concentrations of nicotine and cotinine (indicating chronic exposure to second-hand smoke) in their lungs than children who die from other causes.

Even smoking outside the home, however, exposes the child to high amounts of tertiary smoke, so in order to completely eliminate the risk factor, it is absolutely advisable for parents to stop smoking altogether, which will improve the health of all members of the household and also lower the risk of the child smoking as an adult.

Vaccines are NOT a risk factor for SIDS. On the contrary, according to some studies, in some cases vaccines have a protective effect against SIDS: the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccination, for example, is correlated with a reduction in SIDS.

Alongside numerous studies on the pathogenesis of SIDS, those dealing with genetically based cardiac arrhythmias, i.e. channelopathies and especially long QT syndrome, are becoming increasingly important.

Although in more limited numbers some cases of SIDS have been associated with Brugada syndrome, short QT syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.

In view of the risk factors, there are some recommendations to reduce the risk of SIDS:

To lower the risk of SIDS, no objects that might restrict the baby’s breathing (e.g. puppets, stuffed animals, pillows, crumpled sheets) should be present in the cradle.

The sheet should not be placed over the baby’s head but should only cover up to the chest and the arms should be uncovered so that their movement does not cause the sheet to cover the head and airways.

A 2005 study showed that dummy use reduced the risk of the syndrome by 90%.

This appears to be due to the fact that the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal nerve, activated by dummy use, activates Arousal through the activation of the reticular formation.

This allows control of the infant’s vital functions (heart rate, respiration, pH and blood temperature), which otherwise, especially in immature infants, might fail under conditions of minimal environmental stimulus (in sleep).

The effector of these functions is the neurotransmitter Glutamate produced, precisely, by the mesencephalic nucleus of the trigeminal on stimulation, in this case, of the dummy.

If rescued promptly, some SIDS infants can be resuscitated and in this case we speak of ‘near miss SIDS’, however, there is still a very high risk of more or less severe permanent brain injury due to anoxia with possible disability.

Emergency Live Even More…Live: Download The New Free App Of Your Newspaper For IOS And Android

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: What It Is And How To Treat It

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: Symptoms And Treatment For Obstructive Sleep Apnoea

Pediatric Airway Obstruction Manoeuvre In Case Of Vomit Or Liquids: Yes Or No?

Italian Society For Neonatology: ‘Premature Births To Positive Mothers On The Increase’

What Can Be Done To Prevent Cot Death SIDS?

Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS): Therapy, Mechanical Ventilation, Monitoring

Australia, AMIT wins Panasonic deployment with SA Ambulance Service (SAAS)

Juvenile gastrointestinal polyposis: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, therapy

Difference between hypoxaemia, hypoxia, anoxia and anoxia

Myocarditis: causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment

Heat emergency: first aid in heat-related illnesses

What is laryngectomy? An overview

27 July, World Head and Neck Cancer Day: causes and symptoms of head and neck…

COVID-19, a watershed moment for laboratory medicine in Africa

Malaysia, life-saving manoeuvre at an Endurance Triathlon Event: rescuers'…

Water rescue: drone saves 14-year-old boy from drowning in Valencia, Spain

UNDP, with support from Canada, donated 8 ambulances to 4 regional centres in…

Diac ambulances and medical equipment are in Emergency Expo

ORION Special Vehicles Test Park: the opinions of those who participated (part…

Icelandic Search and Rescue Association launches its first boat, a Kewatec…

FLIR thermal imaging cameras: Insight Fire Training tips

Australia, AMIT wins Panasonic deployment with SA Ambulance Service (SAAS)

Emergency Live is the only multilingual magazine dedicated to people involved in rescue and emergency. As such, it is the ideal medium in terms of speed and cost for trading companies to reach large numbers of target users; for example, all companies involved in some way in the equipping of specialised means of transport. From vehicle manufacturers to companies involved in equipping those vehicles, to any supplier of life- saving and rescue equipment and aids.

Emergency Live Piazzale Badalocchio 9/b, 43126 Parma (PR) – Italy Phone: +39 340 2246247 VAT Number: IT02277610347 Write us: go to the form mail

This website is not intended for the purpose of providing medical advice. All information, content, and material is for information and educational purposes and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider. All the contents inside this website are addressed to EMS, Rescue and Medical professionals. All the information in the following pages are focused on the health sector, medical devices, pharmaceutical products or products inside these categories, and they request the use of a professional of the health sector.