Possible ways to prevent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)

When I had my first kid, I had no clue what SIDS was. After my delivery, I was made aware about SIDS from the nurses and doctor but still had so many questions in my mind. Then I started reading as much material as I could through internet to gain knowledge on SIDS. Some articles helped me understanding SIDS but some of them really made me more nervous and scared of this dreaded word. But eventually, now being a Mom, my primary reason to jot this article is to share my experience and knowledge with the new moms out there.

SIDS is abbreviated as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. This is a scenario when a healthy kid suddenly dies while she is sleeping. Unfortunately, this is the leading cause of sudden deaths among infants from 1 month to 1 year. Researches show that approximately 2500 kids die from SIDS each year in United States.

Here are the most popular reasons of SIDS:

1. The baby throws her blanket on her face preventing her from breathing leading to her death. That is also called “crib-death”.
2. Smoking, drinking or drug use during pregnancy can also cause adverse effects on the baby which might lead to SIDS.
3. Overheating from excessive sleepwear/bedding/room temperature is also a known reason of SIDS.
4. Some cushion/pillow accidentally falls on the baby’s face which can lead to lack of oxygen for her causing her death.

Sharing my experience, being a stay-at-home mom, I used to catch a glimpse of my newborn baby every half an hour whether he is sleeping or not. I also found instances where he has mistakenly put his toy or a cloth nearby onto his face but my constant vigilance helped me putting him back to safe position again.

One other way which I figured out myself was that I used to make my boy sleep after swaddling him. Well, doctors also say that babies should be swaddled before their sleep as it makes them cozier and they think they are still in their mom’s womb and hence sleep nicely. Another advantage of swaddling is their hands are not open for them to put the blanket, cloth on their face which can in turn lead to lack of oxygen. I personally felt that I used to have a sound sleep whenever my baby is swaddled to sleep as I knew that he can’t harm himself in any way.

Also, whether you do sleep-sharing with your kid or put him on the crib, make sure there is no cushion/pillow near him which might fall onto his face while he is asleep. This is unfortunately a quite dangerous situation because this way the baby can’t even cry to call you.

Another important consideration would be that -we should not put too many woolen cloths while he sleeps. The way we want comfortable clothes to wear while we sleep, similarly babies want so. Do not load them with sweaters, socks, caps while they sleep. Babies need +1 cloth on what we wear. If we are wearing one layer of cloth then they just need 2. So, make sure they are comfortable with their cloths and the temperature of the room.

I hope some of my experiences would help new moms give their baby the best start which every infant deserve.

I strongly believe that every child is precious.

Enjoy motherhood.