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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is an incident of sudden and absolutely unpredictable death, mostly during sleep, of an apparently healthy infant under one year. SIDS is also called as crib death or cot death, and it may become a subject of real fear for parents of a little baby. SIDS happens with one baby per 500 and remains the leading reason of infant death in many developed countries. Every year 5, 000 6, 000 babies in the U. S. die because of it: that means one baby dies every hour in our country.
Statistically % 60 of dead infants is boys, and correspondent % 40 is girls. More than % 90 of deaths occurs in infants below 6 months. Most commonly SIDS happens between second and fourth month of a newborn, but in fact all the babies below one year are under some risk. It may happen to both bottle-fed and breastfed babies.
A baby may die at any time, but mostly it occurs between midnight and 8 A. M. , besides the syndrome peaks in winter time, from October to April. Death happens very fast and babies do not suffer any pain or struggling. For the decades SIDS has been a subject of numerous researches of medical specialists, as the syndrome is almost impossible to predict and to be prevented. In early investigations many doctors were trying to find out whether SIDS is caused by heart or lungs disorders. During the 90 s all the efforts of medical researchers were directed on examining and studying the problem and looking for means to lower the risks of SIDS.
Numerous works, articles, and also special educational programs, based on the latest results of medical researches, offer some precautions and safety measures for parents and baby-sitters in order to lower the possibility of babys sudden death. Recent medical researches are concentrated on finding the reasons of death from this disorder. With the help of modern medical technology specialists can explore a babys body from numerous angles: functioning of organs, development of brain and nervous system, chemical balance, influence of environment, and many others. It is proved clinically that neither chalking and vomiting, nor minor infection and other diseases, nor child abuse or parent neglect (symptoms, which frequently accompany the cases of death from SIDS) are not the causes of SIDS. The real reasons of the syndrome remain unknown, but there are some possible directions, determined by medical specialists, which may lead humanity to the clues of this tragic death of babies. The majority of researchers suppose that SIDS may be a result of combination of many reasons.
First of all, some inherited genetic inclination can be named. A baby can be born with some special vulnerability to environmental conditions and stresses, which are usual for those creatures who only start investigating this world. Second can be some birth defects, which cause failures in the period of development, especially during first months. Frequently medical researchers connect this with abnormalities of brain. Besides, SIDS may be a result of very fast development of a baby in the first half year of life, though even a baby may not have any defects or irregularities. Some theories insist on looking for reasons of SIDS in failures of respiration system of babies, because in many cases the results of autopsy reveal blockages and other problems with airways.
Specialists suppose that a range of abnormalities (like high blood level, irregularities of nervous or immune systems, or others) may result in changes of breathing patterns of a baby, or in buildup of unnecessary substances in breathing system, or in losing breathing reflex. That is why when sleeping, babys organism may not respond with alarming when there is not enough air or, particularly, oxygen, especially if a baby lays down on high pillows, or very much wrapped. There are definite risk groups of infants who are the most susceptible to SIDS. First is a group of children, whose mothers were smocking cigarettes or especially using drugs, like cocaine and heroine, during the pregnancy periods, so embryos did not receive enough of oxygen during their development. With smocking or drinking alcohol mother increases more than three times the risk of dying from SIDS for her baby.
Also children of smoking fathers belong to this group, together with those children, who are exposed to cigarette smoke during their first year of life. The other group includes babies of those women, who received poor prenatal care or suffered lack of it during the pregnancy. It is known that a developing human embryo in a female organism may feel negative emotions of mother and stress situations very well, that is why some potentially defective features of nervous system may appear even on such early stage of growing. One more group includes infants, who are born by very young women (under 20), or also those babies, who had small birth weigh. And the last group is children, who have genetic inclination to SIDS. As the symptoms of the syndrome can not be defined clearly, there are no proper warning signs or alerts for it, and the causes of this sudden death can not be explained even after medical investigation.
SIDS is supposed to be diagnosed exclusively. It means that doctors diagnose the reason of death as SIDS only after all the other possible alternatives of diseases are excluded. But at the same time, despite of so many questions and undiscovered points left, there are some measures of precaution, which are strongly recommended for all parents of young children to follow in order to avoid the risk of SIDS. First of all, as babies are dying from SIDS during the sleep, parents must control the peace and safety of their children when they are sleeping. In order to prevent discomfort and possibility of malfunction of breathing system of little babies, who yet can not roll and change the position when sleeping, mothers must place them to sleep on their back, on rather firm mattress or pillow, avoiding any soft bedding comforters. It is also recommended not to share bed with a baby and place him to sleep in a separate crib or cot, which is at the same room with the parents.
In such case risk of SIDS is lowered, as medical statistic shows. Besides, it is very important not to envelop and not to wrap baby very tough when he sleeps. Especially mother must be sure that babys head is not covered. It is better to wear some little clothes on the baby than to cover him with a blanket of a sheet. Keeping right temperature of babys body and in the room where he sleeps is one of the most essential points for avoiding SIDS: it must not be very cold or hot, so child must not be disturbed. Of course, all the precautions must be followed in order for baby not to join the groups of risk, which were defined above.
Mothers must keep the infants away from cigarette smoke, its direct and indirect influence. It is better for a woman not to smoke at all, especially during the pregnancy and breastfeeding periods. It is very important to take care about the baby, to hold him, to spend a lot of time with him, to talk, to kiss. It is always better when a mother watches after her baby, not a baby-sitter. Mood and feelings of mother are always transmittable to the child; that is why it is essential to be smiling and accumulate positive emotions.
Children born in divorced families, or those ones whose parents feel guilt, despair, anger, or blame, are extremely sensitive to the negative impulses of the environment and more susceptible to SIDS. The situation becomes very hard, when a child belongs to a group of risk by inheritance, when there were cases of death from SIDS before. For such conditions medical specialists can offer some prophylactic solutions, which, nevertheless, are not the means to prevent SIDS. First of all, parents may use so called electronic breathing monitors, which alarm the adults when baby stops breathing for some time. Such devices can be successfully installed and used at home by anyone. Second solution is immunization of baby against whooping cough (pertussis).
This disease frequently is misdiagnosed with SIDS, and experiments show that vaccinated babies demonstrate lowered incident on SIDS, so prevention of pertussis may become helpful to decrease the risk of the syndrome. But many specialists are likely to think that it is better not to use medicines and immunization for such young children. Especially dangerous is using medicines, which help babies to sleep longer and quieter: for this purpose using a usual pacifier is much more effective and safe, it would be only better to remove it from babys mouth when he fell asleep in order not to cause blockage in respiration system. As there are no predictable reasons and symptoms of SIDS, there is no special medical treatment for it. Doctors may only record the death and, after the autopsy or studying of details of the death and history of family's health, to diagnose it as SIDS if there are no other possibilities of diagnosis.
But psychological and medical treatment may, probably, be required for the parents who lost the baby, because is it a big tragedy, which may damage mental and physical health. Little babies are not supposed to die; they must grow and develop for the joy and happiness of their parents. It is a great misery to live longer than own child. Around the country there are special psychological courses and groups organized by doctors and professional psychologists in order to help young parents to survive and to recover after unexpected loss of their baby. Sudden infant death syndrome is a very awful and dramatic event.
It may happen everywhere, in every family, regardless of social, cultural, ethnic or economic level. It is not a result of wrong behavior or wrong environment. It is not somebody's fault, it is just an accident, and must be treated as accident in all possible meanings. But optimistic moment on this point is that recently, thanks to better education about the risks of SIDS, statistic on it is firmly improving. Bibliography: "Facts Abut Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. " SIDS Network. CAM Consulting. 19 Mar. 2005 < web >.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. " Wrong Diagnosis TM. 15 Mar 2005. Advivare PTY Ltd. 19 Mar. 2005 < web >. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. " Doctor Greene. Green, A. 31 May, 2002. Green Ink Inc. 19 Mar. 2005 < web >. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). " E-Medicine. 15 Nov, 2004 E-Medicine Inc. 19 Mar. 2005 < web >.
Stock, D. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome FAQs. " Internet FAQ Archives. Gibbs, M. D. , FAQ Archives Online. 14 Feb, 1997. 19 Mar. 2005 < web >. Outline In the beginning of the work there are descriptions of the features of sudden infant death syndrome and statistical illustration of its frequency.
Some directions and results of recent medical researches are described, the most important of which is investigation of babys respiration system failures. It is found out that SIDS has no noticeable signs and syndromes, and there are a number of supposed reasons of SIDS, like influence of cigarette smoke, wrong position of a baby when sleeping, young age of mother, low weigh of a newborn, bad emotional environment, etc. Some popular methods of precautions are given, like avoiding of influence of smoke, control of the temperature, separate sleeping, breath monitoring, etc. It is stated that psychological background of sudden death of a baby may cause health damage and disorders of the parents, who lost their infant children.
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Research essay sample on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
