SIDS Risk Question

[MidwesternGal]

This morning I got my Redbook in the mail. I am following the story about the three friends in their pregnancy journeys. Well, one woman had her first baby die from SIDS. So she keeps a monitor on her daughter (now 5 months) for breathing.

She mentioned her doctor is okay with keeping it on until 9 months, because another peak SIDS time is 8 months. I have never heard this--I thought once babies hit the 6m mark and were rolling around, moving, etc that the risk dramatically decreased. I know there is a risk up until 1 year of age, but I didn't realize there was another "peak" time.

Has anyone heard this? Can anyone shed some light on why the 8m mark is another risk time?

[bluebunny]

I haven't heard that either. Great, another thing to worry about!

[Sophia]

Count me as another who's never heard anything about a second peak age for increased SIDS risk. I even tried a Google search and found nothing.

[...Shannon...]

I've never heard of a second peak time, either. It's a good thing I didn't know about it when DD was a baby! I didn't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time for the first 6 months because I was so scared she die of SIDS and I was constantly checking on her.

[PinkMartini]

I thought once babies hit the 6m mark and were rolling around, moving, etc that the risk dramatically decreased.

That's what I've always heard/read as well.

[BethIrish]

That women in that Redbook story are all on CC. I'm sure when/if the woman it is referring to sees this, she'll answer

[MidwesternGal]

BethIrish--Really? Wow! Hopefully she does come in and see my question!

[IzzyJune2006]

Well I wouldn't be surprised if there's different risk categories for different families. SIDS appears to be attributable to genetic factors. So maybe in families with SIDS there's another peak at 8months.

I have no evidence to back this up, it's a complete assumption.

[Franni]

That s*cks. DD has figured out how to roll one way to her belly but not the other way yet. Since she always does this now and she's 6 months old, I leave her there. She wakes up when I try to roll her over AND I thought that SIDS risk decrease when they reach 6 months.

Another thing to worry about.

[jennylou]

Hi there ladies. Our ped did tell me this. She didn't give me any back up evidence, and I didn't think to ask - I was just thankful to have the extension on the monitor at the time. But, in the end, DD came off the monitor shortly before 8 months, IIRC - she was pulling the leads out with her feet several times during the night (sometimes hourly), making her and my sleep worse off. It was scary taking her off of it, and I slept very little the first few days after taking it off of her.

SIDS risk does decrease dramatically when the baby can roll over. But, there are still some who die closer to a year and are still ruled SIDS.

SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion - all it tells the Drs is that there was no medical reason (or foul play) for the cause of death.