Helping others sleep better every night!
From the category archives:
Images show babies sleeping in positions that increase risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). More than one-third of the photos in women’s magazines depicted babies in unsafe sleep positions, according to a study published in the September 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The study also found that two-thirds of sleep environments depicted in these magazines were also unsafe.
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A recently published study demonstrates maternal smoking is associated with an impaired infant arousal process that may increase the risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The authors suggest maternal smoking has replaced stomach sleeping as the greatest modifiable risk factor for SIDS.
Results show that the progression from sub-cortical activation to cortical arousal was depressed in smoke-exposed infants, who had lower proportions of full cortical arousals from sleep and higher proportions of sub-cortical activations than infants born to non-smoking mothers.
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Infants who slept in a bedroom with a fan ventilating the air had a 72 percent lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) compared to infants who slept in a bedroom without a fan, according to findings from a study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.
This is the first study to examine an association between better air ventilation in infants’ bedrooms and reduced SIDS risk.
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Clinicians have long considered smoking during pregnancy a major contributing risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but had not proved a casual relationship. A new study using rats provides the most direct evidence showing a causal link exists, at least, between prenatal smoking and SIDS.
Other contributing factors include disturbances of breathing and heart rate regulation and impaired arousal responses, thermal stress (primarily overheating from too high temperatures or too much clothing) and sleeping in the prone (belly-down) position.
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