Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is a traumatic and tragic disease that affects thousands of babies throughout the world every year. There is no way of explaining the death of a child that has SIDS and there are no real ways of predicting if it could happen to any baby. What makes SIDS even worse is that the source of what exactly may be the cause of it is still unknown. Advanced research in the last 30 years has dramatically reduced the number of deaths. SIDS not only affects the infants but also the families of the infant and it proves to be a very tough and emotional experience for them.
So what exactly is SIDS? The term SIDS was finally defined in 1969 as the sudden death of an infant or child, which is unexpected by history and in which a through post-mortem examination fails to demonstrate an adequate cause of death (Culbertson 3). Basically this is another way of saying that it is not known why these babies die. SIDS is not a new disease contrary to what some people might believe, but it has been happening throughout time, unexplained deaths of babies are even recorded in the bible. SIDS was probably the most neglected disease ever recorded in history of man. It wasn't until recently that major steps were taken to figure out why babies were dying so unexpectedly and what could we do to prevent it from happening.
So what exactly causes SIDS and is there anything we can do to prevent it? Well as of right now, the cause of SIDS is unknown. We do not know what causes SIDS and there are no consistent warning signs that might alert us to the risk of it. However, scientists and researchers have discovered many things that might attribute to the causes of SIDS. SIDS almost always occurs at night when the infant is sleeping. A higher incidence of SIDS is seen among premature and low birth weight children. Women who smoke and let their children be exposed to smoke give their children a higher risk of SIDS. Low birth rates among children have a higher chance of getting SIDS. Finally there is a much higher rate of SIDS when infants are placed on their stomach to sleep.(Culbertson, 8-10) One of the biggest recommendations physicians make to new parents today is to let their babies sleep on their back. Putting them on their back greatly decreases the risk of SIDS to their children. These are just some of the things that have been...
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...2). Everything we know, all the information that is produced and published is all just a theory because we don't even know what happened and what caused the death. So where do we go from here? What can be done to stop this terrible disease? Who knows. All we can do is sit back and hope someone's 'theory'; is the right one and be thankful that this disease only affects 1-3 infants per thousand born. There are so many questions but not nearly enough answers and until that day we can only do what the experts tell us to do and hopefully the SIDS disease will almost become non-existent.
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Picture yourself with a brand new child, Holding it in your arms, comforting it, and putting it back to rest in its crib. Then you go about your day at home when all of a sudden the baby starts to cry very loud and doesn't stop. You start getting frustrated so you walk to where the baby is at and start to shake it so it will be quiet. After about ten seconds it calms down, and then falls asleep again. The baby doesn't cry again for a long time so you go back to check on it about two hours later. You notice the baby isn't moving, breathing, or showing any signs of life. What you don't know is that you just committed a murder called Shaken Baby Syndrome. Another term that is close to Shaken Baby Syndrome that I will be discussing in my paper is Abusive Head Trauma.
In the United States, approximately 2 million children are living with life threatening conditions and 18,000 new born die within the first 28 days of life due to prematurity/immaturity, infection, and congenital anomalies annually (Thibeau 2012). Globally 450 newborns die every hour (Eden 2010).
Neonatal nursing is a field of nursing designed especially for both newborns and infants up to 28 days old. The term neonatal comes from neo, "new", and natal, "pertaining to birth or origin”. Neonatal nurses are a vital part of the neonatal care team. These are trained professionals who concentrate on ensuring that the newborn infants under their care are able to survive whatever potential life threatening event they encounter. They treat infants that are born with a variety of life threatening issues that include instances of prematurity, congenital birth defects, surgery related problems, cardiac malformations, severe burns, or acute infection. Neonatal care in hospitals was always done by the nursing staff but it did not officially become a specialized medical field until well into 1960s. This was due to the numerous advancements in both medical care training and related technology that allowed for the improved treatment and survival rate of premature babies. According to the March of Dimes, one of every thirteen babies born in the United States annually suffers from low birth weight. This is a leading cause in 65% of infant deaths. Therefore, nurses play a very important role in providing round the clock care for these infants, those born with birth defects or other life threatening illness. In addition, these nurses also tend to healthy babies while their mothers recover from the birthing process. Prior to the advent of this specialized nursing field at risk newborn infants were mostly cared for by obstetricians and midwives who had limited resources to help them survive (Meeks 3).
Prevention, U. D. (2008). A Journalist’s “Five Ws”. Retrieved May 18, 2013, from A Journalist’s Guide to Shaken Baby Syndrome:A Preventable Tragedy: http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/pdf/sbs_media_guide_508_optimized-a.pdf
This can be diagnosed during the pregnancy or after the baby is born. “Anencephaly would result in an abnormal result on a blood or serum screening test or it might be seen during an ultrasound.” This birth defect is more common in girls than boys. There is also no cure or standard treatment since most die shortly after birth. As a way to offer support to these families, many hospitals offer perinatal hospice care. A perinatal hospice approach helps these families through the process: pregnancy, birth, and death. ("Facts about
With the guidance of their physician, Baby Does’ parents chose to withhold medical care and surgery due to the conclusion still leaving the child with severe retardation. “Officials at the hospital had the Indiana Juvenile Courts appoint a guardian to determine whether or not to perform the surgery. The court finally ruled in favor of the parents and upheld their right to informed medical decision” (Resnik, 2011). Because of the decision made to withhold surgery and medical care, Baby Doe died five days later of dehydration and pneumonia.
The thought of never being able to walk or crawl is unimaginable. We take for granted how truly blessed we are. Even the simple task of walking or even standing may seem like moving mountains to the children who suffer from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Some go their whole lives without knowing what it is like to even crawl. SMA is the number one genetic killer in infants under two (What is Spinal Muscular Atrophy?) it affects people for the rest of their life and the disease is devastating, so why is it taking a backseat to other infant diseases such as SIDS?
Twenty five to thirty percent of babies shaken die (National Shaken Baby Syndrome). Immediate medical attention can help reduce the impact of shaking, but many children are left with permanent damage from the shaking. The treatment of survivors falls into 3 major categories. Those categories are medical, behavioral, and educational. In addition to medical care, children may need speech and language therapy, vision therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and special education services. (Showers, 1997) Many incidents of Shaken Baby Syndrome are not reported out of fear. It is important to seek immediate and early medical attention. Serious complications and even death can be avoided.
Imagine one night you are putting your baby to sleep like you always do, when you wake up in the morning to find that your infant has all of the sudden passed away in their sleep. This phenomenon has become a parent’s worst fear. Their baby has passed away from sudden infant death syndrome and there is nothing they can do or could have done about it. SIDS is a real thing and has occurred all throughout history. It is very important to understand variables that can increase your chance of losing a baby to SIDS, looking for signs in their cry that could hint towards SIDS and taking every step you can to avoid sudden infant death syndrome from striking your family.
a baby ranging from low birth weight and abnormalities to death. There are a few government
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the most frequent cause of death between 1 month and 1 year of age (Naeye). SIDS is defined as the sudden death of any infant or young child that is unexpected by it’s history, and in which a thorough postmortem examination fails to determine an adequate cause (Hunt 1987). It is important to consider both aspects of this definition in order not to ‘overdiagnose’ SIDS. A mistake of this nature would occur with failure to report a previous history of seizures, or if at the time of the autopsy a differentiation between suffocation due to rebreathing and SIDS was not made (Kemp 1993). One of the major characteristics of SIDS is that of ‘silent death’, which occurs during a sleep period. The majority of SIDS cases are between 1-6 months, with the peak occurrence being between 2-4 months. Boys are affected more often than girls (Becker, 1990).
Neonatal resuscitation is intervention after a baby is born to strengthen it’s breathe or to boost its heartbeat. Approximately 10% of neonates require some assistance to begin breathing at birth, but only 1% require serious resuscitative measures. Informed consent regarding neonatal resuscitation is a constant ethical debate. This discourse ordinarily occurs between doctors and parents; parents often feel that the decision has been made for them, believing that they were not fully informed of any consequences that may occur before making their final action plan, or thinking that their opinion was not taken seriously; however, doctors see the procedure in a different light, that the parents can’t choose the best option for the child regardless of counseling, or performing as the parents wished but believing that the result could have differed if the parents had known all the effects that it will have further down the line, or convinced that they would have made a better
child will never wake back up from a coma or if they know that their baby is in so much pain,
American academy of Pediatrics (AAP), (1999). US Vital Statistics show Death Rates down, Birth Rates up: http://www.aapaorg/advocacy/archives/decvital.htm