Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Prevention

To prevent sudden infant death syndrome, attention must be paid to reducing risk factors.

Behavioral risk factors

• Diet
  • Exclusive bottle feeding
• Consumption of stimulants
  • Alcohol consumption (> 1st trimester/third trimester) + maternal smoking during pregnancy (12-fold increased risk).
  • Smoking of the of parents during pregnancy – already from one cigarette per day is a 2-fold risk detectable (increase dose-dependent).
• Drug use
  • Maternal drug use (cocaine; cannabis; heroin and methadone use) during pregnancy.
  • Drug use by the father after birth
• Sleeping in the prone position is considered the main risk factor – side position cannot be recommended either due to instability (10 times the risk)
• Covering the head / pulling the blanket over the head (22-fold risk).
• Overheating of the child (3.5 times the risk)
• Sleeping with another person (or animal).
• Sleeping on the sofa – 67-fold increased risk for infants to die unexpectedly (due to suffocation or strangulation/less due to sudden infant death syndrome)
• “swaddling” (pucking) of infants (swaddling technique: wrapping the infant with blankets, sleeping bags, and other wraps)
• Bedding too softly:
  • Suffocation due to soft padding (69% of all suffocations); common in adult bed (49%) and most common in prone position (92%)
  • Cause was mainly blankets (34%), too soft mattresses (23%) or pillows (22%)
  • Blankets, stuffed animals

  Other causes: Suffocation death by another person (19% of all cases), most often by mother or father; most often in adult bed (73%).

Other risk factors

• Infants born at altitudes above 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) in the U.S. state of Colorado have a 2.3-fold increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), according to a study; the likely cause is oxygen deprivation.

Prophylactic measures

The following recommendations as assured:

• Place your child on his or her back to sleep; use a firm surface when doing so
• Ensure a smoke-free environment for your child even throughout pregnancy
• Avoid overheating: during the night, a room temperature of 18 ° C is optimal, instead of a comforter is recommended to use a baby sleeping bag in age-appropriate size. When in doubt, feel between the shoulder blades if the skin feels warm but not sweaty: then your child is neither too warm nor too cold.
• If you do not want to use a sleeping bag, make sure that your child’s head does not slip under the covers by placing him in bed so that his feet hit the foot end. Refrain from using pillows, fur pads, “nests,” padded bed surrounds and larger stuffed animals that your child could use to cover himself.
• Let your child sleep with you in your room, but in their own crib.
• Breastfeed in the 1st year of life, as long as you can.
• Offer your child a pacifier at bedtime (no coercion; i.e., e.g., no re-placement of the pacifier with the sleeping child!) (29% risk reduction); risk reduction possibly due toexpansion of the upper airway or a lower depth of sleep.