Smoking, intra-uterine growth retardation and sudden infant death syndrome

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is associated with factors such as maternal smoking and low birthweight, which may be linked causally. Recent pathological studies have shown evidence for growth retardation at organ level in SIDS infants whose weights at birth were above the tenth centile, and were not therefore recognized as growth retarded clinically. It might be of value to identify such hidden growth retardation at birth, and to have an estimate of how much of it may be associated with maternal cigarette smoking.