Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

The risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is double for the Late-preterm newborn (LPT) (Bakewell-Sachs, 2007).  Some risk factors cannot be eliminated such as delivery prior to 37 weeks for specific medical complications, but there are many risk factors that can be eliminated, such as exposure to smoke during pregnancy and after birth.  Small or preterm newborn boys born to unmarried mothers in their teens that smoke or drink alcohol are at the highest risk for SIDS.  Being Native American or black with minimal education also contribute to the risks (Hitti, 2006).

Did you know? When mom or dad puffs on a cigarette, their infants may inhale the resulting second-hand smoke. Now, researchers have detected cancer-causing chemicals associated with tobacco smoke in the urine of nearly half the babies of smoking parents. "The take home message is, 'Don't smoke around your kids,'" said Stephen S. Hecht, Ph.D., professor and Wallin Chair of Cancer Prevention at The Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota ("Carcinogens in urine," 2006).

Links for sids information for parents

http://www.sids.org/nprevent.htm

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/sids.html

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/extlink.pl?l=http://www.circsol.com/sids/index.HTM

References

Bakewell-Sachs, S. (2007, June). Near-term/late preterm infants. Newborn & Infant Nursing Reviews, 7(2), 67-71. doi:10.1053/j.nainr.2007.05.001

Ballantyne, C. (2009, January 6). What is third-hand smoke? Is it hazardous? Researchers warn cigarette dangers may be even more far-reaching. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-third-hand-smoke

Carcinogens found in their babies’ urine. (2006). Retrieved from http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2006/carcinogens-found-in-babies-urine.html

Hitti, M. (2006). Longer SIDS risk for premature babies. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20060207/longer-sids-risk-premature-babies