Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Researchers find out why baby stomach sleeping is a risk

BY DANNY ROSE, The Canberra Times

The latest Australian research has revealed why putting a baby to sleep on its stomach dramatically increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Babies monitored as they slept in this unsafe position were found to have a reduced blood pressure and an increased heart rate, compared with when they slept on their backs, as recommended.

These effects were most pronounced in babies aged two to three months, the age when babies are most at risk of SIDS.

Associate Professor Rosemary Horne, from the Ritchie Centre at Monash University, said, ''For the last 15 years now we have been looking at what is different about babies sleeping on their tummies.''

She said parents now had a reason to follow the advice ''don't sleep your baby on its tummy''.

3 comments:

Lea said...

Dying of SIDS may be one thing but has anyone noticed the prevalence of Plagiocephaly amongst young babies in the past few years since the 'lying-on-the-back' policy has been encouraged?

Not only do babies heads now look ugly, plagiocephaly can cause short and longterm sequelae in terms of brain development.

It is necessary to reposition infants heads from side to side when laying them down to help prevent this condition.

Who is educating our young mothers about this happening to their babies?

Lea said...

Dying of SIDS may be one thing but has anyone noticed the prevalence of Plagiocephaly amongst young babies in the past few years since the 'lying-on-the-back' policy has been encouraged?

Not only do babies heads now look ugly, plagiocephaly can cause short and longterm sequelae in terms of brain development.

It is necessary to reposition infants heads from side to side when laying them down to help prevent this condition.

Who is educating our young mothers about this happening to their babies?

cinderkeys said...

They've been researching this for 15 years, and they've only thought just now to look at blood pressure and heart rate?

Almost makes me want to rethink my suspicions about the CDC's behavior toward ME/CFS. Maybe there isn't a conspiracy after all. Maybe medical science really is this stupidly slow. :P

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