Sudden Infant Death Syndrome SIDS for short is an all to common occurrence. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the sudden and unexplained death of an infant who is under one year of age who appear to be healthy. SIDS occurs to one or two babies out of 1,000. In the United States alone every year almost 7,000 babies die from SIDS. There are more SIDS deaths reported in the winter and fall than in the spring and summer. This may be due to more colds, flues and other infections that occur more frequently during the winter. The rest of the world has about the same rates. Sudden death Syndrome is the leading cause of death in infants who are between the ages of one month and one year. Most SIDS cases happen between the ages of two to four months. Nobody knows exactly what caused SIDS. .
The babies that are most at risk are premature male infants, although no one knows why. African-American and Indian-American infants are two to three times more likely to die from SIDS than other infants. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is determined only after an autopsy, examination of the death scene, and a review of the infant and families" clinical histories. More children die of SIDS in a year that all who die of cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, child abuse, AIDS, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy combined. Even though no one knows what causes sudden Infant Death Syndrome there are some things that parents can do to help reduce the risk of SIDS. The first precaution is to put your baby on its" back when he or she is going to sleep, whether this be at nap time or bedtime. Infants may also be placed on their side to sleep, but this does not provide as much protection from SIDS as back sleeping does. Many people do not know this since it a fairly new idea. The evidence that stomach sleeping may contribute to SIDS is led the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In July of 1992 they started to recommend that all healthy infants younger than 1 year of age be put to sleep on their backs.