Definition
Typically the infant is found dead after having been put to bed, and exhibits no signs of having suffered.
SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion. It should be applied to only those cases in which an infant's death is sudden and unexpected, and remains unexplained after the performance of an adequate postmortem investigation, including:
- an autopsy (by an experienced pediatric pathologist, if possible);
- investigation of the death scene and circumstances of the death;
- exploration of the medical history of the infant and family.
Australia and New Zealand are shifting to the term "sudden unexpected death in infancy" (SUDI) for professional, scientific and coronial clarity.
The term SUDI is now often used instead of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) because some coroners prefer to use the term 'undetermined' for a death previously considered to be SIDS. This change is causing diagnostic shift in the mortality data.
In addition, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently proposed that such deaths be called "sudden unexpected infant deaths" (SUID) and that SIDS is a subset of SUID.
Read more about this topic: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Mothers often are too easily intimidated by their children’s negative reactions...When the child cries or is unhappy, the mother reads this as meaning that she is a failure. This is why it is so important for a mother to know...that the process of growing up involves by definition things that her child is not going to like. Her job is not to create a bed of roses, but to help him learn how to pick his way through the thorns.”
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—Ana Castillo (b. 1953)