SIDS and Infant Sleep Ecology

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the designation given to the unexpected death of an infant that remains unexplained following post-mortem, death scene investigation and review of clinical history [1]. The search for mechanisms underlying such deaths has been largely unsuccessful; brainstem anomalies are thought to be involved. Although rare SIDS is the leading category of non-accidental deaths between 1 month and 1 year of age, annually affecting one in 3000 babies in the UK and one in 2000 in USA.\ud\udKey associations with SIDS are identified using retrospective studies of SIDS-cases and matched controls. Three key