Campaign launched to reduce risk of SIDS

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is still the leading cause of death
for infants from one month to one year of age, and although it
can’t be prevented, there are certain measures that parents can
take to reduce their children’s risk.
The Sonoma County Department of Health Services has launched a
new education campaign to help reduce the risk of Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related infant deaths.
Local businesses, hospitals and organizations will be displaying
floor decals promoting the “Back to Sleep” campaign that was
originally launched in the mid-90’s to remind caregivers of the
importance of placing infants to sleep on their backs.
The 24-inch vinyl floor decals display “safe sleep messages” in
English and Spanish.
“Right now, there’s a trend for fewer babies to be placed on
their backs to sleep,” said Rebecca Munger, Maternal Child
Adolescent Health Coordinator with the Sonoma County Department of
Health Services.
Munger said that after a dramatic decrease in the number of SIDS
deaths after the “Back to Sleep” campaign of 1994, the number of
SIDS deaths has begun to rise again in recent years.
“It’s a confusing issue because how SIDS is diagnosed is
changing and coroners and detectives are doing a much more thorough
examination at the scene to understand what happened,” she
said.
“Some deaths that were called SIDS now are not and vice versa,”
Munger said. “It’s been a diagnosis of exclusion, when no other
factor explains the death, it’s classified as SIDS. But with the
more thorough investigations, some cases that might have been
classified as SIDS are classified as suffocation or some other
factor.”
But, Munger is quick to note that while there are some things
that parents and caregivers can do to reduce the risk, all of the
causes of SIDS are not known and parents who experience a loss to
SIDS should not feel blamed or accountable.
“The last thing we want to do is blame parents,” she said. “Even
though we know factors that can help decrease the risk, it’s not
100 percent. Some times parents can follow all the guidelines and
still experience an infant death in a sleep environment.”
SIDS is defined as “the sudden death of an infant under one year
of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case
investigation, including performance of a complete autopsy,
examination of the death scene and review of the clinical history
of the family and infant.”
In California, approximately 200 infants die of SIDS each year.
According to the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, as
many as two to four infants die in their sleep each year in Sonoma
County.
According to Health Services, research shows that parents and
other caregivers can help reduce the risk of infant death by
putting babies to sleep on their backs, in their own beds, and
without blankets or other soft bedding.
Other factors that reduce risk have been identified as well.
“We know that breastfeeding is protective and can decrease
incidence and we know there is a relationship to tobacco smoke,”
Munger said.
According to the California Department of Health, other factors
that increase a child’s risk of death from SIDS include premature
birth and exposure to overheating.
For more information on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, visit
www.californiasids.com.
The new educational campaign in Sonoma County was made possible
by a grant from the CJ Foundation for SIDS and the work of graduate
students in the Sonoma State University Nursing Program.
Businesses and organizations that are working in coordination
with the campaign include: A Child’s Dream, Alliance Medical
Center, Big Lots, California Parenting Institute, Community Child
Care Counsel, Drug Abuse Alternatives Center, Food Maxx, G & G
Markets, Kaiser Permanente, K-Mart, Lola’s Markets, Lucky
Supermarkets, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Redwood Gospel Mission
Thrift Store, Sonoma County Indian Health Project, Sonoma Valley
Hospital, Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, Women’s Recovery
Services, and YMCA.