Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as SIDS, is the death of an infant under one year of age, in which there is no other identifiable cause of the death. All other possible causes, including health or environmental causes, should be ruled out before SIDS is identified as the cause of a baby’s death. While the exact causes of SIDS are not understood, there are some things that parents may be able to do to reduce SIDS risks, and try to prevent this horrible disaster from happening to their family.

Maternal smoking is one SIDS risk factor. Studies suggest that, when a woman smokes throughout her pregnancy, her baby is at a higher risk of dying of SIDS. There are other factors during pregnancy that may affect SIDS risk, as well. For example, poor prenatal care, the use of illicit drugs, or even urinary tract infections all seem to increase the risk of SIDS. In addition to these things that are related to lifestyle and behavior, SIDS is also more common for mothers that are under 20 years of age.

Another important parts of SIDS risk prevention is to place your baby on his or her back when you put your baby to bed. It is thought that side sleeping or stomach sleeping are both risk factors for SIDS.

Giving a baby a pacifier at nap time and at bed time is also thought to help prevent SIDS. While researchers are not sure why or how this happens exactly, the evidence that it does help is overwhelming.
Keeping your baby from overheating is another important part of reducing SIDS risk. Make sure that your baby is clothed lightly at bedtime, and the bedroom temperature is not too warm. If the baby feels hot to the touch, he or she is probably overheated.

There are products, devices and monitors that are marketed specifically for reducing the risks of SIDS. The thing to keep in mind about these products is that there are no FDA-approved SIDS prevention products, and that while it is possible that they may help, you cannot rely on them to keep SIDS from happening to your baby.

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