posted May 16, 2005 09:24 AM         

Earlier this month, other researchers puzzled over statistics showing the incidence of SIDS is going down while the overall unexpected infant death rate remains mostly unchanged in the United States. Reporting in the journal Pediatrics, they said the paradox may be the result of some SIDS deaths being reclassified into different categories, such as suffocation, and the Arizona research seems to add credibility to the supposition.
http://www1.excite.com/home/health/health_article/0,11720,525708|05-15-2005::06:00,00.html

I was couched in the middle of the article, which both before and after stressed the importance and success of the "Back to Sleep" campaign.

OK, now it may be interpreted a number of ways (more on that in a second), but doesn't it *seem* like the selection's pretty much saying that the overall infant death rate isn't changing *despite* the back to sleep campaign, and that any purported success may be attributable to different reporting standards (ie, counting more of what may have once been classified as SIDS deaths as preventable deaths due to unsafe sleep surfaces and co-sleeping)?

The only other explanation that I can see would be that *so many more* people, proportionately, are putting babies to sleep on couches, adult beds, and with the parents than in the past that that upswing's negated SIDS deaths...but somehow that doesn't seem likely.

posted May 18, 2005 08:12 AM         

quote:

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SIDS is defined as the sudden and unexplained death of a child under the age of 1. It is the leading cause of death for infants between 1 month and 12 months of age, according to the NICHD.

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A little off topic here but what do you think about co-sleeping/bed sharing?