Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the stuff of parental nightmares. You put a perfectly healthy baby to sleep and the next morning you find them cold and blue. More than 2,300 babies die of SIDS before their first birthday every year. There are no symptoms of SIDS, and the only known preventative measure is putting children to sleep on their backs, rather than their stomachs.
Yesterday, U.S. researchers announced that they have taken another step towards discovering the roots of this mysterious killer. They have discovered that babies who die from sudden infant death syndrome make low amounts of the message-carrying brain chemical serotonin needed to regulate sleep, breathing and heart rate.
The study, conducted by the Children’s Hospital Boston, compared brain tissue from babies who died from SIDS with that of babies who died from other causes. Serotonin levels were 26% lower in tissue from SIDS babies. These finding suggest why sleep position is such an important preventative for SIDS. Babies with normal serotonin levels will turn their head or wake up if they stop getting enough oxygen due to a face down position, a baby with a low serotonin level might not be able to wake themselves or respond.
Dr. Alan Guttmacher, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the study, said in a statement that “The current findings provide important clues to the biological basis of SIDS and ultimately lead to ways to identify infants most at risk as well as additional strategies for reducing the risk of SIDS for all infants.”
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