Recent theories on the cause of cot death

Recent theories on the cause of cot death.

Rebreathing expired gases from bedding: a cause of cot death?

The reported association of cot death and sleeping prone could be due to rebreathing of expired gases. A mechanical model simulating the respiratory system of an infant, exhaling warm humidified air with an end tidal carbon dioxide of 5%, has been used to investigate this. Some commonly used bedding materials caused an accumulation of carbon dioxide of 7% to over 10% with the model lying face d...

Bacterial toxins: a possible cause of cot death.

AIM To test the hypothesis that sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) may be caused by toxins of commonly occurring bacteria in infants lacking developed immunity. METHODS Nasopharyngeal microbial isolates from 22 pairs of SIDS cases and healthy infants matched for age (by month), sex, and sampling time (by month) were compared for lethal toxigenicity. Crude toxin preparations were made from is...

Infanticide, filicide, and cot death.

The 'suppression' of unwanted babies seems to have been commonplace in antiquity. Early travellers to New Zealand, while remarking on how fond the Maoris were of their children and how well they looked after them, noted that infanticide was openly practised. The most favoured methods were squeezing the nose between the fingers, pressing the fontanel, or putting a wet cloth over the baby's head-...

Infanticide, filicide, and cot death

The 'suppression' of unwanted babies seems to have been commonplace in antiquity. Early travellers to New Zealand, while remarking on how fond the Maoris were of their children and how well they looked after them, noted that infanticide was openly practised. The most favoured methods were squeezing the nose between the fingers, pressing the fontanel, or putting a wet cloth over the baby's head-...