SIDS

Rare card · No. 34019

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), sometimes known as cot death or crib death, is the sudden, unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usually occurs between the hours of midnight and 9:00 a.m., or when the baby is sleeping. There is usually no noise or evidence of struggle. SIDS remains one of the leading causes of infant mortality in Western countries, constituting almost 1/3 of all post-neonatal deaths. The exact cause of SIDS is unknown. The requirement of a combination of factors including a specific underlying susceptibility, a specific time in development, and an environmental stressor has been proposed. These environmental stressors may include sleeping on the stomach or side, overheating, and exposure to tobacco smoke. Accidental suffocation from bed sharing (also known as co-sleeping) or soft objects may also play a role. Another risk...

Read on Wikipedia · Image National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Public domain