Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of death among infants between the first month and year of life in developed countries. The syndrome itself consists of the sudden and unexpected death of a child under one year of age without explanation. Despite this being an unpredictable fact, experts from the Department of Medicine at UIC Barcelona and from the General University Hospital of Catalonia have demonstrated that a good sleeping position can prevent this syndrome.

Entitled “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: do families follow the recommendations?”, researchers conducted a cross-disciplinary study in 640 families with children aged 0 to 11 months to analyse the position children were put to sleep in, as well as the place they sleep in, and aspects such as breastfeeding or smoking among mothers. The results showed that the position in which infants sleep is the main factor that needs to be modified to avoid this syndrome, as well as compliance with the other recommendations made by paediatricians that are risk factors which can be modified by families.

Specifically, the study showed that there is a high prevalence of the risk factor since only 6.4% of the families follow medical recommendations. “It seems necessary to restart personalised education and other awareness and prevention campaigns on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS),” said Dr Irene Ruiz, a paediatrician at the General University Hospital of Catalonia, and Dr Albert Balaguer, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the main researchers for this study.