> > From: Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > I think I'm speaking up now because a bad thing happened. As > > some of you know, many years ago, I was, from time to time, > > "Robert X. Cringely," writing the gossip column in the back > > of InfoWorld. I covered for my buddy Mark Stephens, who has > > leveraged the pseudonym into a small empire with the > > help of PBS. In January, Mark sent me photos of his newborn > > twins, with a note that said something like, "49 years of > > f***ing around finally paid off." Take a look at his column > > this week for a little perspective: > > http://www.pbs.org/cringely > > The short summary is that one of his boys died. In his lap, as > > he read e-mail. From SIDS. And now he wants us to help > > him prevent SIDS deaths. > > > The Fool wrote: > >http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/scitech/SciTechRepublish_543544.htm > > Studies shed light on crib death > Tuesday, 30 April 2002 > Two studies which have been released could shed more light on > why infants who lie on their stomachs are more likely to die > of sudden infant death syndrome. > (snip section on how belly-sleeping and 2nd-hand smoke can contribute to SIDS)
I'm afraid that doesn't help much to explain how Chase (the infant boy mentioned in the article) died of Sids. It's explained that he was a back-sleeper, nobody in the family smokes, and there was no abuse (another leading cause of death that often gets called SIDS) in fact, he was sleeping in his fathers lap when he just stopped breathing. The article called for help to develop something to monitor and maybe prevent SIDS. They do have equipment to monitor breathing, but it is expensive. When my daughter was a month old, she would sometimes stop breathing for as long as a minute, and even turn blue before we could get her breathing again. This worried us and the doctor enough to run a diagnostic test that monitors heartbeat and breathing overnight. This was not an inexpensive piece of equipment, however, and on the first try, the battery ran out. By the time one was available for a second test, Megan's apnea problem had pretty much went away. I've also heard about (again fairly expensive) crib mats that monitor movement, that are supposed to be sensitive enough to detect breathing, and will beep if they detect nothing for some period of time. But again this isn't the kind of thing that would really do the job of really monitoring, researching, and preventing SIDS. -- Matt
