SIDS Studies Point to Low Serotonin Levels as Cause
February 3, 2010 by Nancy
Filed under Featured Story, News Talk
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.
Infant Death Syndrome » SIDS Studies Point to Low Serotonin Levels as Cause … on Wed, 3rd Feb 2010 10:13 pm
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Mandy on Wed, 10th Mar 2010 1:26 am
I heard that having a fan on in the room (not blowing right on the baby) reduces SIDS too. That makes sense from it just blowing the exhaled air around better, but don’t think it would help much if the baby has it’s mouth right in the sheets.
I used to inspect hotels and we had to make sure the sheet fit the portable crib mattress very tightly so it would not gather up at all.