SIDS – An Answer?
August 8th, 2008. Filed under: Finance & Fitness Fridays.I read an article in in the July/August issue of Science Illustrated that indicates that the mystery of why 2,000 to 3,000 babies between the age of two months and one year die yearly with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Until lately this has been a mystery, but researchers at Seattle Children’s Hospital suspect that it may be the result of inner ear injury. Sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it, that a hearing problem related to damage of the ear could cause a baby to stop breathing?
The hypothesis is the child’s blood pressure short-circuits the breathing reflex. This is a three part theory. First, the umbilical cord straightens at birth and a surge of blood enters the baby’s body through his veins and reaches his inner ear. Secondly, this pressure can burst tiny blood vessels located in the inner ear which damages delicate cell tissue including tiny hair cells. Thirdly, the damaged hair cells which would normally alert the brain to adjust breathing if carbon dioxide levels are too high, don’t do their job. Thus the CO2 builds up and causes the baby to suffocate while asleep.
If research confirms this theory, we will know the why, but when will we know the what and how? What do we do to identify the babies most at risk and how can we prevent these deaths?