I tried to send this a different way. If this is a repeat, sorry.. If  
not, here it is.
Annie

Here is the article from Yahoo news. It at least supports  
breastfeeding and clarifies a few points. I am still saddened that  
our babies are being moved further and further away from us. And,  
there are still NO guarantees you will not lose a baby to SIDS no  
matter what you do. The mom quoted in the article is a perfect  
example of the guilt we have created by these guidelines; their  
babies would NOT have died if they'd known then what we know now. For  
some babies that is probably true, but for others, I am not so sure.  
Has anybody researched genetic markers for SIDS? Any common link?  
What about babies who die in utero? Often times it is blamed on a  
cord issue, could it be a pre-term SIDS? We all know plenty of babies  
who had cord around the neck and lived. I know that cord prolapse is  
different. Even knots in the cord, it is very hard to get a tight  
knot in a cord, cords are pretty rubbery.
Sorry to go a little OT here, just thinking about all the new guilty  
feeling parents because they didn't use a pacifier :(
Annie VerSteeg IBCLC

New SIDS Policy Recommends Pacifiers - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_he_me/preventing_sids_1


By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO - Babies should be offered pacifiers at bedtime, and they  
should sleep in their parents' room — but not in their beds — in  
order to lessen the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, the  
nation's largest group of pediatricians says.

Both measures may help keep babies from slumbering too deeply — a  
problem for infants prone to SIDS, said Dr. Rachel Moon, who helped  
draft the new recommendations on SIDS prevention. They were prepared  
for release Monday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of  
Pediatrics.

The death rate from SIDS has fallen sharply in recent years, now that  
parents are warned not to let their babies sleep on their stomachs or  
amid fluffy bedding or stuffed toys. But it remains the leading case  
of death in U.S. infants between ages 1 month and 1 year, killing  
more than 2,000 U.S. babies each year, and new tactics are needed to  
fight it, the academy said.

SIDS is defined as a sudden death of an infant, often while sleeping,  
that remains unexplained even after an autopsy and death scene  
examination.

Some breast-feeding proponents have advocated letting infants share  
their parents' bed to facilitate nighttime nursing and have opposed  
pacifier use because of concern that the devices might interfere with  
nursing.

But the academy is a longtime supporter of breast-feeding, and the  
new policy was crafted with that in mind. It recommends delaying  
pacifier use for breast-fed infants during the first month of life —  
when SIDS risks are low — "to ensure that breast-feeding is firmly  
established." And it says placing cribs near the parents' bed makes  
breast-feeding more convenient. Infants may be brought into the bed  
to nurse, but should be returned to their cribs afterward, the policy  
says.

Pacifiers offered at bedtime should not be reinserted if they fall  
out during sleep, should not be coated in sweet substances, and  
should not be forced upon infants who refuse them, the policy says.

The new policy, which updates the academy's 2000 SIDS guidelines,  
also says that the only recommended sleep position for infants is on  
their backs. Letting babies sleep on their sides, considered a less  
favorable option in the old policy, is now considered too risky to  
even be considered an option, because infants could roll over to  
their stomachs.

In 1992, 4,660 U.S. infant deaths were attributed to SIDS. That  
annual number fell to about 2,800 in 1998, thanks at least partly to  
the government-sponsored "Back to Sleep" campaign launched nationwide  
in 1994. By 2002, the reported number had dropped to 2,295.

"Over 2,000 babies a year are still dying. We should be able to do  
something about that," said Dr. John Kattwinkel of the University of  
Virginia, chairman of the academy's SIDS task force.

Doctors think actual numbers are higher because some true SIDS deaths  
are being blamed on other causes, said Moon, a SIDS researcher at  
Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Data suggest,  
for example, that accidental suffocation, which is hard to  
distinguish from SIDS, has increased in recent years, Moon said.

Doctors aren't sure about SIDS causes but a prevailing theory  
suggests that brain stem abnormalities affecting arousal reflexes  
leave some babies vulnerable when faced with challenges during deep  
sleep, including overheating and breathing hampered by pillows,  
stuffed animals or other soft objects. Babies sleeping on their  
stomachs are at risk because they sleep more deeply and their airway  
risks being partly obstructed.

Laura Reno, spokeswoman for First Candle/SIDS Alliance, a national  
advocacy group, said her organization strongly supports the new  
recommendations.

"We just want to reduce as much risk as possible," said Reno, who  
lost a baby son to SIDS 21 years ago, long before stomach-sleeping  
and soft bedding were known risk factors.

"He was sleeping on his tummy on top of a sheepskin. If I had just  
known then what we know now," she said. "It's a devastating thing for  
parents and guilt is strongly associated with these deaths."

The academy's new recommendations are based on new research,  
including studies that have suggested that sucking pacifiers might  
help keep vulnerable infants from slumbering too deeply to rouse  
themselves.

Dr. Stephen Sheldon, director of the sleep medicine center at  
Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, said pacifiers also enhance  
babies' swallowing and are an age-appropriate habit.

While pacifier use can increase the risk of ear infections, these  
infections are less common during the first year of life — when the  
SIDS risk is highest — than later on, the academy said.

The policy recommends pacifier use throughout the first year but not  
beyond.

Pacifier use in older children may increase risks for teeth  
misalignment, but using them in infancy is not a problem, said Dr.  
Paul Reggiardo, a Huntington Beach, Calif., dentist and past  
president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

"These are from our point of view appropriate recommendations,"  
Reggiardo said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_he_me/pr
eventing_sids
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