Terrified of SIDS

[Anonymous]

Know that you were doing everything exactly the way you should be doing it to establish and keep very safe sleep environments for your baby. I’m glad you are working with a therapist on some of the lingering anxiety. A lot of this is normal, but you are being really smart to address things knowing your anxiety may be a little different than usual. I had a lot of anxiety right after my baby was born around SIDS and what could happen, and a lot of that dissipated as she got older. Although, every morning I go to get her out of bed, I have a quick flash wondering if she’ll be breathing. I think part of that never goes away! Hang in there. You’re doing everything you should be doing! And congratulations on your new baby!

[Anonymous]

You are already doing the right things. My anxiety about SIDS got better around 8 months when my baby could clearly move around as much as they wanted (could crawl by then). Sometimes you just have to wait… but hopefully your lexapro or another anxiety medication plus therapy can help before then.

[Anonymous]

I feel the need to add my two cents because unlike what some posters have said, some babies still do die unexpectedly during sleep even with no risk factors, only safe sleep, breastfed, etc. My son was one of them at 15 weeks. Just because the odds of something happening is very low and the risk can be reduced in various ways, it is not zero. Every parent has to weigh and decide what will ease their anxiety and what will only heighten it as far as monitoring. A therapist can help you work through that. Good luck OP.

[Anonymous]

I hope this doesn’t up you OP but my pediatrician and a colleague did some research on SIDS. What they found was that many cases classified as SIDS are really unprovable homicides. I remember being so upset learning about this that it brought me to tears; but, also it also reduced my anxiety about potential SIDS with my babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope this doesn’t up you OP but my pediatrician and a colleague did some research on SIDS. What they found was that many cases classified as SIDS are really unprovable homicides. I remember being so upset learning about this that it brought me to tears; but, also it also reduced my anxiety about potential SIDS with my babies.

If it was unprovable, how did the research come up with this result then? This is not helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope this doesn’t up you OP but my pediatrician and a colleague did some research on SIDS. What they found was that many cases classified as SIDS are really unprovable homicides. I remember being so upset learning about this that it brought me to tears; but, also it also reduced my anxiety about potential SIDS with my babies.

If it was unprovable, how did the research come up with this result then? This is not helpful.

Just because you do not find it helpful does not mean that it is untrue or that it is not helpful to others. Are you the OP?

I am not a doctor but even I know that SIDS is considered a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning that it is applied when they could not identify any other 'proveable' causes of death with certainty. If it was 'proveable', by definition it would be a homicide, not SIDS.