About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffSudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the unexplained death, usually during sleep, of a seemingly healthy baby. Sudden infant death syndrome is sometimes called crib death.
The exact cause is unknown, but sudden infant death syndrome may be associated with abnormalities in the portion of an infant's brain that controls breathing and arousal from sleep. Although all babies are vulnerable, certain sleep environments have been linked to increased risk.
Perhaps the most important way to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome is to place your baby on his or her back to sleep, on a firm crib mattress covered by a fitted sheet. Nothing else should go in the crib with your baby — no blanket, pillow, bumper pads or toys.
- Hunt CE, et al. Sudden infant death syndrome. In: Kliegman RM. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/208746819-6/0/1608/0.html. Accessed March 31, 2011.
- Corwin MJ. Sudden infant death syndrome. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 31, 2011.
- Maitra A. Sudden infant death syndrome. In: Kumar V, et al. Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, Professional Edition. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2010. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/page.do?eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4377-0792-2..50015-8--cesec51&isbn=978-1-4377-0792-2&type=bookPage§ionEid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4377-0792-2..50015-8--cesec55&uniqId=238364706-3. Accessed April 1, 2011.
- Moon RY, et al. SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths: Expansion of recommendations for a safe infant sleep environment. Pediatrics. 2011;128:1030. www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2011-2284. Accessed Oct. 18, 2011.
- Hauck FR, et al. Breastfeeding and reduced risk of sudden infant death syndrome: A meta-analysis. Pediatrics.2011;128:103.
Find Mayo Clinic on