This is confusing to me. Babies sleeping on their tummies does not
cause SIDS. It is one variable associated with SIDS, one among many. As
I understand it, we don't really know what causes SIDS. In fact, I had
a pediatrician in a childbirth class who defined SIDS as a sudden,
*unexplained* death of a child under 1 year of age. Once you can
explain it, it's not SIDS, it's whatever cause you have discovered.
This is one of the reasons that SIDS rates vary from one region to
another, some doctors are better at diagnosing cause of death than
others.
I suspect that some babies are more likely to die of one or more of the
many variables associated with SIDS for reasons having to do with their
own physiology. We don't yet have a good handle on what those factors
are or identifying who has them. Some babies die lying on their backs,
too. Not as many as on their tummies, I guess, but it happens.  We know
that bfing makes SIDS less likely, but breastfed babies also die of
SIDS sometimes. Not all SIDS deaths are preventable by taking simple
steps like nursing or sleeping on tummies. How do we figure out what
the personal factors are in the babies that we need to be looking at so
we can tailor our advice for each baby? Are researchers and
practitioners asking those questions yet?

Naomi Bar-Yam

On May 1, 2004, at 9:04 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Actually the day care SIDS problem is
> related to putting babies on tummies, rather than backs, so they will
> sleep
> better
--------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
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Researcher, Writer, Educator
in Maternal and Child Health
--------------------------------

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