baby

Some babies have abnormalities of the brainstem that make them susceptible to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome regardless of their sleeping environment, a new study reveals.

The abnormalities impair the ability of a baby's brain to control their breathing, heart rate, blood pressure and temperature during sleep. This may prevent the infant from waking when they breath in too much carbon dioxide or too little oxygen, due to inadequate ventilation, or become overheated from excessive clothing or bedding. The discovery raises hopes that a blood test could be used to identify babies at risk of SIDS and vulnerability could be treated early.

In the study researchers, from Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, reviewed cases of babies who died suddenly and unexpectedly between 1997 and 2008 who had autopsies carried out by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office and had brainstem samples available for analysis. They compared data for 15 infants whose SIDS deaths were not believed to have involved asphyxiation, 35 whose SIDS deaths were believed to involve asphyxiation and 9 cases where death was clearly caused by other factors.

All the babies who died from SIDS were found to have biochemical brainstem abnormalities, regardless of whether asphyxiation was believed to play a role in their deaths or not. The group of babies who died from obvious causes did not have these brainstem abnormalities.

"Even the infants dying in potentially asphyxia-generating situations had an underlying brainstem abnormality that likely made them vulnerable to sudden death if there was any degree of asphyxia,'' lead reseacher Professor Hannah Kinney said of her team's findings, which are published in this month's US Pediatrics journal. "That abnormaily prevents the brainstem from responding to the asphyxial challenge and waking."

Professor Kinney emphasised it was still vitally important for all parents and carers to follow safe sleep practices for their babies, but said she hoped her team's discovery could help prevent save some babies lives.

"Safe sleeping practices absolutely remain important, so these infants are not put in a potentially asphyxiating situation which they cannot respond to,'' she said.

"Certainly there are compromised sleeping environments that can cause any baby to die, such as entrapment in the crib, but if it's just sleeping face down, the baby who dies may have an underlying brainstem vulnerability. We have to find ways to test for this underlying vulnerability in living babies and then treat it. Our team is now focused on developing such a test and treatment."

According to the most recent figures from SIDS and Kids Australia, 63 babies died across the country from SIDS in 2011. This number of sudden and unexplained deaths of babies, including SIDS, has dropped by 80 per cent since 1989.


It is hoped this research can further cut the number of babies lost to SIDS, but parents are also advised to follow safe sleeping guidelines which state:

1. Sleep your baby on the back from birth, not the tummy or side.

2. Sleep your baby with head and face uncovered.

3. Keep your baby smoke free before birth and after.

4. Provide a safe sleeping environment night and day.

5. Sleep your baby in there own safe sleeping place in the same room as an adult caregiver for the first six to twelve months.

6. Breastfeed your baby.



