Breakthrough in SIDS Research
9 children will die suddenly and unexpectedly every day according to the SIDS and Kids website. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood (SUDC) add up to the loss of 3500 Australian children every year.
But in a breakthrough in medical research at Westmead Children’s Hospital researchers may have found a direct link between a child’s risk of SIDS.
The study has shown that there is a direct link between children who have passed away from SIDS and a decreased level of a protein found in the brain. Orexin is a protein which helps our body regulate sleep. In adults who suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnoea are also deficient in the brain protein.
The unit manager of the sleep clinic at Westmead Children’s Hospital Dr Rita Machaalani said that the study now gives “hard core proof” that SIDS is sleep related. She went on to say “It’s linked that there is a sleep related issue, which we’ve always known because the babies die in their sleep, but we didn’t know what it was linked to but this protein seems to be a major player in it,”
The research group will now continue work to find the ideal level of Orexin for a baby’s brain to develop, and will hopefully be able to monitor babies at birth and determine their risk of SIDS by a simple blood test.
“If we can determine what’s the normal level in babies when born than we can use those abnormalities to predict kids that might be at risk in the future of SIDS or sleep apnoea,” “Parents aren’t doing those (risky) things anymore and yet babies are still dying, why would one baby die and another baby in the same situation not die? There has got to be something underlying that,” said Machaalani
For more information on SIDS or SUDC see Go Ask Mum’s post from August
