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Can this SIDS statistic be right?

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1 comment on Can this SIDS statistic be right?

From an article on CNN entitled "Why infants still die of SIDS":

Preliminary research also suggests that babies who begin daycare before 4 months of age, like Jake Haberzettl, may be at increased risk as well. In the most recent AAP analysis, about 20 percent of all SIDS deaths occurred while the baby was in the care of someone other than a parent. One third of the infants died during the first week of childcare, and half those deaths occurred on the very first day.


"It may be that starting a new routine interrupts the baby's sleep cycle, so that when he finally does fall asleep, he sleeps too deeply," says Dr. Moon. It may also be that some providers don't recognize the risks of tummy sleeping.

I know that SIDS deaths are rare enough that their victims are hardly a representative sample of the population, but that strikes me as a weirdly high fraction of first day/first week events.

Unless there are many, many more "first weeks" of childcare than second, third, and subsequent weeks?  Which would be true if people with young babies tend to try caregivers out for a week or so before switching or quitting.  I haven't seen the AAP analysis referred to in the article; there's no link or other mention, unless I missed it.

On another note, it's a positive sign to see an article about SIDS that doesn't reflexively implicate co-sleeping (although it notes, correctly in my view, that when a baby dies suddenly while sleeping with adults, the coroner must admit smothering as a possible cause of death).

Comments

One response to “Can this SIDS statistic be right?”

  1. Pam Avatar
    Pam

    The article that you are referring to was very good. As SIDS educators, we have known for about 10 years now that a disproportionate number of infants died in childcare compared to the number of infants in childcare.
    Dr. Moon has been doing the research surrounding SIDS deaths. Her initial persumption was that infants in childcare died at a higher rate because childcare providers did not know about placing babies on their backs. But, we’ve been doing education for many years now with childcare providers (many states require training to be licensed).
    Unfortunately, the rate in childcare has not gone down as much as we’d like. So, the question is – is there something inherently risky to young infants about childcare or are providers still not following the guidelines despite the increased education.

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