sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) [ME, sodain, to come up; L, infans, unable to speak; AS, death + Gk, syn, together, dromos, course] , the unexpected and sudden death of an apparently normal and healthy infant that occurs during sleep, with no physical or autopsic evidence of disease. It is the most common cause of death in children under 1 year of age, with an incidence rate of 1 in every 300 to 350 live births. In the last few years, death scene investigations have been helpful in identifying an unsafe sleep environment as a contributing factor in SIDS cases and it is now recognized that many of these infant deaths are due to asphyxiation and suffocation. In 1992 a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Infant Positioning and SIDS recommended that infants be laid down for sleep in a nonprone position; and in 1994 a “Back to Sleep” campaign was jointly initiated by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Over the next five years, the rate of prone sleep positioning and the rate of SIDS both decreased. Since 2001, the rate has been relatively constant. It is known that the risk of SIDS increases after the first month of life and peaks at 2 to 4 months of age. Infants should be placed for sleep supine as a preventive measure. Nursing considerations consist predominantly of support and counseling, such as assessing how the parents feel about the death to help them through the resolution of grief, learning what they know about the syndrome, supplying them with whatever information and literature they need, and finding out how they are coping with any guilt feelings and how the siblings, if any, are coping with the death. The nurse also can supply information about local groups of parents who have lost a child from SIDS. Also called cot death, crib death. See also parental grief.
