Sudden Infant Death

2 Pages 516 Words

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

SIDS is the most common death in the postneonatal period. This means that infants between the ages of one month to one year’s old are diagnosed with SIDS. SIDS is a syndrome that stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and is defined as a sudden death of an infant that is unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including an autopsy, examination of the scene of death, and a review of the clinical history.
The cause or causes of SIDS vary. The triple risk model proposed by Filiano and Kinney suggest that SIDS represents an intersection of factors. These factors include vulnerable infant possessing intrinsic abnormalities in cardiorespiratory control, a critical period of development of homeostatic control mechanisms, and exogenous stressors.
Another part of the triple risk model is that when vulnerable infants are subjected to stressors at times when normal defense mechanisms are structurally, functionally, and developmentally deficient. (http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic.htm}
Studies have shown that in a number of cases dealing with SIDS evidence of delayed development of the brain stem has been demonstrated as well reductions in the degree of myelination in specific brain regions. Some infants with SIDS have been noted to have fewer acetylcholine-binding receptors in the arcuate nucleus. This nerve cell is critical to the integration of cardiorespiratory and arousal responses. (http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic.htm}
There are a numerous amount of symptoms for infants including blood-tinged discharge from the nose or mouth, signs of livor mortis and rigor mortis. Accidental head entrapment, source of heating carbon monoxide, minor inflammatory changes within the tracheobronchial tree, or signs of passive congestion of the organs may all be contributors to the symptoms of SIDS.
SIDS has demonstrated a higher rate among African-American infants than white infants. These racial...