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FRIDAY, March 7 (HealthDay News) -- While new research suggests that putting a baby to sleep with a pacifier may reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, putting your baby to sleep on his or her back and not exposing the baby to smoke before or after birth are the two most important steps parents can take to reduce the risk of SIDS, according to child care experts.
"We can't guarantee that we can prevent SIDS deaths, but we can reduce the risk as best as possible," explained Dr. Fern Hauck, an associate professor of family medicine and public health sciences at the University of Virginia Health System.
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About 2,250 American babies still succumb to SIDS each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number is half of what it was in 1990, before the U.S. government began the "Back to Sleep" campaign that encouraged parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs instead of their stomachs, according to the CDC.
The exact cause of SIDS remains unknown, although Dr. Bobby Batra, a pediatrician with the Detroit Medical Group, pointed out, "We do know that SIDS isn't caused by immunizations, and it's not caused by vomiting or choking."
Harvard researchers have recently found what they believe to be evidence of a genetic basis for these deaths, according to Hauck. But, even if a baby does appear to have a genetic susceptibility to SIDS, "it doesn't necessarily destine that baby to a SIDS death," she said. Hauck added that SIDS is likely a "multi-factorial" disorder, and that a combination of genetic susceptibility or a defect acquired in the womb -- from something like maternal smoking or drug use -- combined with environmental risks is probably what causes SIDS, she said.
And, while parents can't change the genes they pass on to their children, there are steps they take to reduce a baby's risk of SIDS.
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