Cause of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) discovered: an enzyme deficiency, not parental action/error

[CitizenVectron]

Big discovery. The last (and bolded) quote below has haunted many grieving parents, but we now know there was nothing they did to cause their baby's death.

 

Researchers Pinpoint Reason Infants Die From SIDS

WWW.BIOSPACE.COM

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Researchers from The Children's Hospital Westmead in Sydney, Australia released a study that confirmed not only how infants die from sudden infant death syndrome, but why. 

 

Quote

SIDS refers to the unexplained deaths of infants under a year old, and it usually occurs while the child is sleeping. According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep the child from startling or waking up.

 

Quote

The Sydney researchers were able to confirm this theory by analyzing dried blood samples taken from newborns who died from SIDS and other unknown causes. Each SIDS sample was then compared with blood taken from healthy babies. They found the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep.

 

Quote

Previously, parents were told SIDS could be prevented if they took proper precautions: laying babies on their backs, not letting them overheat and keeping all toys and blankets out of the crib were a few of the most important preventative steps. So, when SIDS still occurred, parents were left with immense guilt, wondering if they could have prevented their baby’s death.

 

[Jason]

posted literally seconds after Wade's post

[chakoo]

This is very interesting results but this article I think it tries to paint all SIDS issues as this being the only thing when some of the issues it downplayed are some culprits of SIDS (including co-sleeping). It's great if this research leads to ways to detect this deficiency and further reduce SIDS in newborns. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Nothing is more panic inducing than waking up in the morning the first night after your kid sleeps fully through the night. I hope this gives those parents some peace and helps to stop this going forward. 

[dualhunter]

My first sister was born very premature and died of SIDS about 4 months later (I was just over a year and half at the time).

[chakoo]

8 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Nothing is more panic inducing than waking up in the morning the first night after your kid sleeps fully through the night. I hope this gives those parents some peace and helps to stop this going forward. 

 

That or the first night when they learn to roll over in their crib. 

 

We have both a smart sock (owlet) and baby cam (nanit) and still get anxiety over making sure she is ok (as one can understand from some of my past posts).

[nublood]

56 minutes ago, Jason said:

u snooze u lose 

 

Wow right out of the gate.

 

[Jason]

11 minutes ago, nublood said:

Wow right out of the gate.

 

It wasn't a SIDS joke, this was posted seconds after Wade's post about it.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

u snooze u lose 

What the actual fuck?!

[Jason]

Just now, skillzdadirecta said:

What the actual fuck?!

 

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

It wasn't a SIDS joke, this was posted seconds after Wade's post about it.

 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

 

 

Just delete it bro... it's not a good look.

[stepee]

Making that comment to this topic and somehow not realizing how it would look to everyone else is some next gen Jason.

[rc0101]

I remember being absolutely terrified when my kids were infants and especially so since my daughter was a stomach sleeper.

[SaysWho?]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

posted literally seconds after Wade's post

 

59 minutes ago, nublood said:

 

Wow right out of the gate.

 

 

46 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

What the actual fuck?!

 

38 minutes ago, stepee said:

Making that comment to this topic and somehow not realizing how it would look to everyone else is some next gen Jason.

 

I read Jason's edit, not realizing it was an edit, and was like "wtf is he getting downvoted? Maybe people think Riley's OP was better than Wade's?" 

[Keyser_Soze]

6 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

I read Jason's edit, not realizing it was an edit, and was like "wtf is he getting downvoted? Maybe people think Riley's OP was better than Wade's?" 

 

I saw it when it was the only post in the thread. If people thought it wasn't a good look now it was even worse then.

[CayceG]

I thought it was a great tasteless joke. To be fair, that's bad. But it worked. 

[CitizenVectron]

I knew what Jason meant!

[Chris-]

1 minute ago, CitizenVectron said:

I knew what Jason meant!

Good because Jason didn’t know what Jason meant. 

[Jason]

6 minutes ago, Chris- said:

Good because Jason didn’t know what Jason meant. 

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

3 hours ago, chakoo said:

 

That or the first night when they learn to roll over in their crib. 

 

We have both a smart sock (owlet) and baby cam (nanit) and still get anxiety over making sure she is ok (as one can understand from some of my past posts).

 

2 hours ago, rc0101 said:

I remember being absolutely terrified when my kids were infants and especially so since my daughter was a stomach sleeper.

Same. My youngest does not sleep on her back—period. Was very worrisome when she could easily go from back to front but not front to back (we had to get her some PT because of her situation in the womb leading to minor developmental delays)

[LazyPiranha]

 

Bringing back this banger

[thewhyteboar]

7 hours ago, chakoo said:

 

That or the first night when they learn to roll over in their crib. 

 

We have both a smart sock (owlet) and baby cam (nanit) and still get anxiety over making sure she is ok (as one can understand from some of my past posts).

That part was such a nightmare. I was so paranoid I'd get up every hour or so just to check on her. 

 

SIDS is such a terrifying thing for a parent. If there is a way to really prevent it, that would be such a god-send.

[Anathema-]

Our baby likes to sleep on her side/tummy too, it's rough having to flip her every few naps or in the middle of the night. It was especially rough last week, she wound up with a fungal diaper rash and was really uncomfortable except in probably the worst sleeping position for a baby (prostrate). 

[chakoo]

 

A video worth watching to explain this a bit more. Emma's channel has been a great source of information when dealing with infants.

 

[Guest]

34 minutes ago, chakoo said:

 

A video worth watching to explain this a bit more. Emma's channel has been a great source of information when dealing with infants.

 

This was very helpful to contextualize the information. Still a great discovery that will hopefully lead doctors to identifying particularly at-risk babies. 

[CitizenVectron]

1 minute ago, sblfilms said:

This was very helpful to contextualize the information. Still a great discovery that will hopefully lead doctors to identifying particularly at-risk babies. 

 

Exactly. Obviously we need to work on figuring out how to correct this enzyme deficiency, but it's great in the meantime if we can at least identify babies at risk so that parents can take as strong a corrective course of action as possible (in terms of monitoring, etc).