"I am so scared that my child will become a victim of SIDS. I am so paranoid that I go to check several times while my baby is sleeping and she 1 and a half. I know I am being ridiculous, but I can't help it. If she sleeps longer than usual, or sleeps in, I am right in there, and usually end up waking her when I touch her to see if she stirs. So I am wondering if anyone else is like me? And If anyone has any advice to offer on how I can relax a little bit!! I don't mean ways I can minimize the risk, I already do. Thanks."
-Alanna's Mommy
13 comments:
well i doubt you have much to worry about at 1 and a half. but really if your doing everything that you can and still aren't relaxed about it i don't think ther is much that is going to make you feel better.
my thinking on the whole SIDS thing is that causes change from year to year and if its going to happen its going to happen. no point in worrying about it.
I think you can get a certain type of monitor for a baby, I don't know much about it, but I'm pretty sure they alarm you if your child stops breathing. You may want to look into it, or if anyone else knows anything about it, feel free to elaborate. :)
Honestly I dont think theres any cases of SIDS after 1 year old. The chances drop dramatically at 6 months, you should ask your doctor about it to make sure.
You could also use an Angelcare Monitor, thats what I used when my son was little because he was a tummy sleeper, Im not sure how well it would work on a toddler, when I stopped using it with my son I was getting a lot of false alarms because he would sit up or roll to the side of the crib.
I agree on the angel monitor. My sister in law used one on my niece and she had ALOT OF FALSE alarms. I dont think it was worth the heartache that it caused her thinking the worse everytime the alarm went off.
First of all, even though it's a terrifying thing (that can actually happen past a year old, contrary to popular belief...but these instances are extremely rare) SIDS is something that if it is going to happen, it is just going to happen. There are tons of ways experts say that we can reduce the risk and tons of things they say increase the risks but nothing 100% causes or prevents it. It's one of those things we have very little control over. I think that you may be overreacting a tad since your child is 18 months old...SIDS is more common in infants than it is in children over a year old and it is actually more common in boys. Recent studies have discovered a possible link to a brain stem defect that causes infants to go into too deep a sleep and they are unable to come out of it and their breathing simply gets so deep that it stops all together. There is nothing we can do to totally prevent this nor are there any screening tools to tell us if our child has the suspected defect. All you can do is go by the recommendations for reducing the risk and hope your child doesn't become a statistic.
I know i am being ridiculous, but I just cant help it :(
It's not that you're being ridiculous, but I do think you are overreacting a tad. At 18 months, there is almost no chance of your child becomming a victim of SIDS and you're going to drive yourself nuts worrying about something that has like a 99.9% chance of NOT happening. I think in your case, getting something like an Angel Care monitor is going to make you more anxious because you're constantly going to be on alert for the alarm and those things give off a TON of false alarms. Do yourself a favor and do some reading on SIDS and you'll see that your child is not at much of a risk.
Heres the link to wikipedia, it tells you what you can do to help reduce the risk.
hmm I should add the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_infant_death_syndrome
I have used the angel care monitor and loved it. When my baby was a newborn it went off alot because newborns tend to periodically stop breathing and we never really know about it and its not really any cause of concern. I never classified the alarms going off as false alarms just because when i went back into the room she was breathing. I believe he stopped for a few seconds and started again. I new it wasn't abnormal but I liked the idea that it was going off and working. After he got a few months old it never went off again. Eventually i would turn off the matress monitor and just use the normal monitor BUT i also loved it when he came down with chest colds and couldnt breath...I still use it if he has a bad chest cold and it comforts me.
Ditto the other comments, but, I can also validate the feeling. I was completely neurotic about my son's sleeping and would never go to sleep without making sure he was breathing.
BUT, if you want to try to have a good laugh about it, go rent the old Debra Winger movie, "Terms of Endearment" and watch (at least) the very beginning. The movie itself is melancholy, but there's a relevant sequence at the beginning that's a riot.
Take care!
I would have to agree with those who said that "if it's going to happen, it's going to happen". I have spoken with some professionals in the field of child medicine and they explained that the Angel Care Monitors (and other such types) are there to make parents feel better. In reality, if a child is going to stop breathing as a result of SIDS, they cannot be revived. You can take all of the precautions to lower the risk of SIDS, but the monitors won't in fact save the childs life.
What do you mean, you can't revive them even if you get there on time?!
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