{"id":67343,"date":"2022-05-18T20:59:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T20:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/?p=67343"},"modified":"2022-05-18T20:59:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T20:59:59","slug":"new-sids-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/new-sids-research\/","title":{"rendered":"New SIDS research may shed light on why some babies are affected, but there\u2019s more work to do"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite being studied and researched for decades, about 3,400 babies die in the United States each year from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/sids\/data.htm\">Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)<\/a>, according to the Centers for Disease Control. So, any progress is good news, and on May 6, Australian scientists published a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2352396422002225\">paper <\/a>noting potential advances in understanding SIDS.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><p>Here&rsquo;s what they found and what experts are saying.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-the-new-sids-study-found\">What the new SIDS study found<\/h2><p>The study, led by Dr. Carmel Harrington of the Children&rsquo;s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, found that some babies who die of SIDS have low levels of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in their blood. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time we&rsquo;ve ever had a potential biomarker for SIDS,&rdquo; Harrington told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/16\/well\/family\/sudden-infant-death-syndrome-study.html\">The New York Times<\/a> on Monday.&nbsp;<\/p><p>While a biomarker could be a game-changer in terms of screening and potentially preventing SIDS, there are a few things to note:&nbsp;<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-potential-drawbacks-of-the-new-sids-study\">Potential drawbacks of the new SIDS study<\/h3><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The study was relatively small.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Data isn&rsquo;t exhaustive enough yet to determine if a BChE screening would truly be helpful.&nbsp;<\/li><li>The medical community is still skeptical, as further research is needed.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul><figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>&ldquo;There is a lot of talk around this study. The Task Force on SIDS has reviewed the study and determined that it is not worth the hype.&rdquo;<\/p><cite>&mdash; DR. JEN TRACHTENBERG, A BOARD CERTIFIED PEDIATRICIAN IN NEW YORK CITY<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-new-sids-study-findings-what-experts-are-saying\">New SIDS study findings: What experts are saying<\/h2><p>&ldquo;There is a lot of talk around this study,&rdquo; says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dr-jen.com\/\">Dr. Jen Trachtenberg<\/a>, a board certified pediatrician in New York City. &ldquo;The Task Force on SIDS has reviewed the study and determined that it is not worth the hype.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p><p>In a statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force on SIDS notes: &ldquo;This is an extremely small study, with 67 cases and 10 controls. The authors themselves call this (in their title) a &lsquo;potential biomarker.&rsquo; There is nothing definitive about this at all. It is definitely not confirmed that this is &lsquo;the cause of SIDS.&rsquo; The current hype, while understandable, is not warranted.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><p>The Task Force on SIDS continues, &ldquo;Additionally, while the differences in blood levels of this enzyme were statistically different &mdash; even if this is confirmed by larger, additional studies &mdash; there is enough overlap in the blood levels between cases and controls that it could not be used as a blood test at this point with any reasonable predictive value.&rdquo;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-reduce-the-risk-of-sids\">How to reduce the risk of SIDS<\/h2><p>Even though SIDS still remains largely a mystery, Trachtenberg notes that the following are important to reduce the risk:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Put baby to sleep on their back.<\/li><li>Use a firm mattress.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Avoid using crib bumpers.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Avoid putting plush toys in crib.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Don&rsquo;t use heavy or thick blankets.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Remember the ABCs: Alone, on Back, in Crib.<\/li><\/ul><p>Additionally, the <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.aap.org\/pediatrics\/article\/138\/5\/e20162938\/60309\/SIDS-and-Other-Sleep-Related-Infant-Deaths-Updated\">AAP<\/a> recommends the following:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Avoiding exposure to smoke, alcohol and illicit drugs during pregnancy.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Breastfeeding.<\/li><li>Routinely immunizing routinely.<\/li><li>Using a pacifier.<\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-main-takeaway-on-the-new-sids-study\">The main takeaway on the new SIDS study<\/h2><p>The media fanfare surrounding the recent research has been big, but it&rsquo;s still a very small advance in the study of SIDS (which, again, is a good thing). Screenings are still a long way off and parents and caregivers should continue to employ the recommended risk-reducing tactics.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the biomarker identified by new SIDS research could be a game-changer in terms of screening and potentially preventing SIDS, experts warn that more work must be done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1273,"featured_media":67347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"enable_toc":false,"care_reviewed_by":0,"care_post_updated_flag":false,"care_updated_date":"","last_update":"2022-05-18","view_count":1301,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"member-type":[3],"vertical":[6,13],"platform":[2],"class_list":["post-67343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","member-type-seeker","vertical-children","vertical-kids-health-safety","platform-resources"],"acf":[],"created":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1273"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67343"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67352,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67343\/revisions\/67352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67343"},{"taxonomy":"member-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-type?post=67343"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=67343"},{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=67343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}