SIDS Studies Point to Low Serotonin Levels as Cause

New SIDS studies point to low serotonin levels as a cause of the heart breaking condition.

SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, kills more than 2,300 babies a year.

According to the autopsy study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, infants who died of SIDS had low levels of serotonin. Serotonin is a brain chemical that helps the brain stem regulate breathing, temperature, sleeping, waking and other automatic functions.

Senior author, Hannah Kinney of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston, said serotonin normally helps babies respond to high carbon-dioxide levels during sleep by helping them wake up and shift their head position to get fresh air.

“When babies are placed face down, their exhaled carbon dioxide may pool in loose bedding where it can be breathed back in”, Kinney said.

Normally, babies sense high carbon dioxide levels automatically and wake up, she says. Babies who don’t respond appropriately, however, may never wake up.

The new SIDS studies that point to low serotonin levels as a cause confirm the importance of  safe baby sleeping practice.