SIDS: Sleep Environment/Breastfeeding

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is one of the many topics I cover in my high school class. My primary motivation is to gather more relevant information to pass on to my students and to check for current research. My hopes are to not only be able to provide my students with accurate information and statistics, but to encourage them to continue to research the topic and share their findings with the rest of the class through some sort of presentation.

Unfortunately, I am finding it challenging to locate current articles from overseas. My primary concern is that most of the articles that I have found thus far were written in the 1990’s, or before, and so much has changed since then. My question is, “has the Back-to-Sleep and other interventions significantly impacted the incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?” Nonetheless, I have located one article from Georgetown University that not only provided data collected from around the world, but links to their sources as well. In this article an international comparison conducted in 2006 revealed that the incidence of SIDS has been reduced significantly around the globe from 1990 to 2005 (for some countries more current information is provided as well) after awareness campaigns such as Back-to-Sleep were run nation wide. The following chart illustrates the reduction in SIDS deaths for each country involved in the study.  I find it interesting, though, that according to this chart, the United states still ranks 2^nd in the world for unexplainable infant deaths when we were ranked 8^th just 15 years prior.

Chart 3. International SIDS Rates, Ordered from Lowest to Highest SIDS Rate in 2005

(For more detailed information on this chart go to: http://www.ispid.org/statistics.html)

Another article published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (2009) shares the findings from a study on SIDS and sleep environment conducted in Germany from 1998-2001. Not unexpectedly, risk factors discussed in the article included prone sleeping, infants sleeping in the living room (what other studies have identified as “couch” sleeping) and infants sleeping prone on soft surfaces – namely sheep skins. An earlier article from the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2009) reports a connection between breastfeeding and the incidence of SIDS. While there is no direct causal proof that breastfeeding reduces the risk of SIDS by 50%, there is a strong correlation. One suggestion may be that babies who are breastfed may be rooming in with Mom or even sleeping in the same bed which may allow for a reduced parental response time if something were amiss with Baby.

International Society for the Study and Prevention of Perinatal and Infant Death. (2011). International Infant Mortality Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.ispid.org/statistics.html

Georgetown University. (2011, August). National SUID/SIDS Resource Center. Retrieved from http://www.sidscenter.org/Statistics.html

Vennemann, M. M., MD, PD, MPH^a, Bajanowski, T., MD, PD^b, Brinkmann, B., MD, PD^a, Jorch, G., MD, PD^c, Sauerland, C.,MSc^d, Mitchell, E.A., FRACP, DSc^e, the GeSID Study Group. (2009, March 1). Does Breastfeeding Reduce the Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. PEDIATRICS, 123(3), e406-e410.  Retrieved from http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/123/3/e406.full (doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-2145)

Vennemann, M. M., MD, PD, MPH^a, Bajanowski, T., MD, PD^b, Brinkmann, B., MD, PD^a, Jorch, G., MD, PD^c, Sauerland, C.,MSc^d, Mitchell, E.A., FRACP, DSc^e, the GeSID Study Group. (2009, April 1). Sleep Environment Risk Factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: The German Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Study. PEDIATRICS, 123(4), 1162 -1170.  Retrieved from http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/123/4/1162.full (doi: 10.1542/peds.2008-0505)