My Topic of concern: SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)

I am choosing the concern of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), because I have experienced it in my family. My sister had a baby that died from SIDS about 18 years ago. It was a boy. He was at the babysitter’s when he passed away. The babysitter had just fed him, and then laid him down to nap. She went back to check on him and he was not breathing. She called 911 and the ambulance came, but they could not revive him.

 

         This devastated our entire family, because doing that part in our lives we had not been to use to death in that type of magnitude. My sister went into a “world” that she blamed God, doctors, and whoever else was in her sight. My sister’s husband tried to talk to the babysitter and her family to let them know that she was not to blame in this tragic situation. The babysitter still was so devastated that committed suicide the very next day. That was another blow for our family.

We managed to get through it by prayer and intense love from our family and friends, my sister slowly recovered from her depression. Her and her husband were blessed with a baby girl soon after and she has grown to be a beautiful, smart, and strong young lady.

SIDS is rare in China. Most Chinese sleep in a supine position, in which babies sleep on their backs.  Immunologic maturity - Chinese infants were found to have higher IgG levels at birth and a different pattern (more mature) of serum immunoglobulin’s all through early childhood. Their leucocyte functions have also been found to be more capable in phagocytosis and intra-cellular killing compared to reports from Caucasians. These might protect against inappropriate response to seemingly trivial infections which often are the antecedent events of SIDS. The parental over-caring and over-proactive behaviors are closer and more vigilant of the supervision of infants.

I am and plan on working with children ages 3-5 and SIDS is not an issue at that, but I would like to do more studies on it. It is still a lot of unanswered questions. I always hear the older generations say, “children slept on their stomachs all the time back in the day and nothing happen to them.” I answer and say, “Babies died from SIDS back in the day, it was just not a name for it.” I would like to find out more facts on the subject of SIDS.

Case: Sudden Infant Death are Rare in China-But Why? (Yeung, Clap-Yung) www.cchi.com.hk/searchans/case2htm