Sudden death syndrome in babies: what is it and how to prevent it?
Listen this article
The syndrome of sudden death is one of the most feared for parents because of its inexplicable nature. Do you know what it is and how to prevent it?
As defined by a study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2014, sudden death syndrome usually occurs in "a child less than a year old […] appears to occur during sleep and remains unexplained after performing a meticulous postmortem research, which includes the practice of autopsy, examination of the place of death and review of the medical history."
This makes it one of the most feared deaths for parents, as it has no clear explanation or symptomatology. According to the daily Babies and more, the risk of sudden death occurs especially between two and four months, is infrequent during the first month of life, after four months decreases and after 12 months it is considered that the Risk has practically disappeared.
You may also be interested: These are the vaccines your baby should have
Although there is no single cause of death from SIDS, some risk factors have been identified according to the Baby Center: being born to a mother under twenty years of age, being born prematurely or with a very low weight, having a large number of siblings and that any of these suffer from the syndrome, be African American or Native American and Alaska and be male.
How to prevent it?
Some simple treatments can help you reduce the risk of SIDS in your baby:
1. Keep the air in your home clean or smoke-free. If you want to smoke, do it outside your home and make sure that everyone does the same, because the risk increases, according to Baby Center, with each additional smoker in the house, with the number of cigarettes smoked per day, and with the amount of exposure time to cigarette smoke.
2. Put your baby to sleep on his back; it is five times safer than putting him to sleep on his side and ten times more reliable than resting on his stomach.
3. Do not set in the cradle objects that represent a danger to your baby, such as protectors, stuffed animals, cushions and blankets that increase the danger of suffocation of the baby and entrapment. Ideally, the baby should sleep alone in his pajamas with comfortable room temperature.
4. Do not take it out of your room: the baby should sleep in the parents' room, either in a crib or bassinet, because this benefits the baby's respiratory and cardiac pattern.
5. Buy a firm mattress to reduce the risk of suffocation in your baby.
LatinAmerican Post | Luisa Fernanda Báez
Translated from "¿Sabes qué es el síndrome de muerte súbita en tu bebé y cómo prevenirlo?"
