ABSTRACT
Infants are vulnerable to death during sleep due to an immature autonomic nervous system and decreased arousal to abnormal blood gas values. Nothing could be more devastating for a parent than the sudden and unexpected death of an infant. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the number one killer of infants between one month and one year of age in the USA and the third major cause of infant mortality. Infants suffer from a unique risk of sudden death during sleep that is not shared by toddlers, children, adolescents, or adults. Prenatal smoke exposure has been linked to a two-fold risk increase in SIDS, and a causal relationship is suggested. The mechanism for this relationship is not known. Infants dying of SIDS have been shown to have increased concentrations of nicotine, even when smoke exposure was denied, indicating a problem with parental reports at the time of death.
