Makes me feel a bit better about using dummies..........
Pacifier Use Could Cut Crib Deaths By 90 Percent
Kaiser Permanente Study Provides New Hope for SIDS Risk
Oakland, CA - Using a pacifier during sleep can reduce a baby's risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, by more than 90 percent, finds a new study by a team of researchers at Kaiser Permanente and the National Institutes of Health.
While pacifier use has been linked to a reduced risk of SIDS for some time, this study finds additional protective benefits from pacifiers, even for children considered at high risk.
The study, published in the online edition of the British Medical Journal (www.bmj.com), and upcoming print edition, looked at 185 babies who died from SIDS in 10 Northern California counties and Los Angeles County from 1997 to 2000. They were compared to 312 normal infants of a similar age and from similar socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.
"Pacifier use has been linked to lower rates of SIDS for some time, but this is the first study to examine this relationship comprehensively and in the context of its interaction with other risk factors for SIDS," said the study's lead researcher, De-Kun Li, MD, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland.
Li added that pacifiers may help protect an infant because the bulky handle stops the baby from accidentally suffocating in heavy blankets or soft bedding. The pacifier handle may alter a child's sleep environment by changing the configuration of the airway passage surrounding the nose and mouth, he noted.
The study also finds that the protective effect of the pacifier seems to be greater even when an infant was in an adverse sleep environment (such as sleeping face down or on the side, sleeping with a mother who smokes, or sleeping on soft bedding).
"We believe that pacifier use may be another strategy for further reducing the risk of SIDS," said Diana B. Petitti, MD, MPH, the lead researcher for Kaiser Permanente's Southern California study site, the Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena.
SIDS is the leading cause of death among infants between the ages of 1 month and one year, claiming between 2,300 and 2,500 lives every year in the United States. In the early 1990s, however, a broad campaign urging parents to put their children to sleep on their backs helped reduce the number of SIDS deaths by more than 50 percent.
The study's other researchers include Marian Willinger, PhD, health scientist administrator, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH; Roxana Odouli, MSPH and Liyan Liu, MSC, programmer analyst, both with Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research; Howard J. Hoffman, MA, director, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NIH. The study has been supported by funds from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NIH.