The tragedy of sudden infant death syndrome: A pediatrician explains how to protect your baby
Published in Health & Fitness
Rachel Moon: These researchers – they looked at dried blood samples. And these are the tests that are done on your baby when your baby is born to look for genetic diseases.
They took these dried blood samples and looked for a particular chemical that’s in the body called butyrylcholinesterase. And they found it to be at a different level in babies who died from SIDS than babies who did not die from SIDS … While I think it’s an interesting result, and while it may lead to other tests and other studies, at this point, it is not the be-all and end-all.
We don’t have a test that can diagnose who is going to die from SIDS and who’s not. And so you still have to follow the safe sleep guidelines.
Watch the full interview to hear about how to prevent SIDS.
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This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Rachel Moon, University of Virginia. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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Rachel Moon receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the American SIDS Institute. She is affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the International Society for the Prevention of Perinatal and Infant Death.
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