SIDS: Utah: American Indian babies

heather may Feb 13, 2011 

Utahns are helping develop a campaign to improve the health of American Indian babies and mothers.

As part of a national effort to reduce infant deaths among the group, American Indian mothers and fathers were invited to the Indian Walk-In Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday to brainstorm effective and culturally appropriate ways to promote healthy pregnancies and babies.

“We wanted to get perspectives from American-Indian parents about infant mortality, what a healthy baby means to them, what a safe baby means to them,” said Leanna Vankeuren, the center’s health program manager.

The Utah center, along with groups in Detroit, Sacramento and Seattle, were given a grant by the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) to help develop and pilot a communications campaign to raise awareness about infant mortality and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

American Indians living in urban areas have a higher infant death rate (8.1 per 1,000 live births) compared to all races in urban areas (6 per 1,000 births), according to the UIHI.

American-Indian babies are more likely than babies of other races to die of congenital anomalies, SIDS and unintentional injuries.

And American-Indian mothers have higher rates of the factors that put them at risk of having a child die: Being a teenage mother, being unmarried, receiving little or no prenatal care and consuming alcohol or smoking while pregnant.

The Indian Walk-In Center interviewed five mothers as part of its Saturday focus group, Vankeuren said.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51235630-76/american-indian-babies-campaign.html.csp

SIDS: US statistics on crib injuries

Feb 17, 2011
CHICAGO (Reuters Life!) - Crib-related accidents send 26 children to U.S. emergency rooms each day and result in more than 110 deaths annually, a new study has found.The analysis, by researchers in Columbus, Ohio, will be published in the journal Pediatrics. It examined historical data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System operated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The researchers found that between 1990 and 2008, some 181,654 children under the age of 2 were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for injuries related to cribs, playpens and bassinets -- the majority as a result of falls from cribs that caused injuries to the head, neck or face.
Only a small fraction of the injuries over the 19-year period -- just 5.5 percent -- were the result of child becoming caught or wedged in the crib's protective bars. But such accidents accounted for the greatest number of fatalities that could not be related to some other cause, such as sudden infant death syndrome.
The vast majority of the children admitted to the ER for crib-related accidents during the study period -- nearly 94 percent -- were treated and released. But an estimated 2,140 died as a result of their injuries.
The researchers from Nationwide Children's Hospital and Ohio State University said a continued strengthening and enforcement of crib safety standards would protect more young children from harm because the vast majority of the injuries -- 83 percent in all -- occurred in cribs rather than bassinets or playpens.
But they also said parents can do several things to help protect their children, including:
* Select cribs that meet all current safety standards, do not have a drop side and are not old, broken or modified.
* Avoid cribs with cutouts, decorative corner posts, knobs that stick up more than 1/16th of an inch or slats that are more than 2 3/8 inches apart.
* Visit www.recalls.gov to make sure the crib has not been recalled.
(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Jerry Norton)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/17/us-babies-cribs-injuries-idUSTRE71G7DV20110217

SIDS: Ohio:Overlying

Doug Staley  Feb 18, 2011

MASSILLON —

The death of a 6-month-old infant this week appears to have been accidental, according to authorities.
The infant, who was sleeping with his father, apparently died after his father rolled on top of him, according to Massillon police detective Bobby Grizzard. An official ruling is not expected until toxicology and microscopic tests are completed in a couple of weeks, according to the Stark County Coroner’s Office.
The infant was positioned between his parents, Grizzard said.
“They (parents) are saying the baby may have moved, which led to the father laying on the baby,” Grizzard said.
The infant was found unresponsive Tuesday after paramedics were dispatched . The boy was pronounced dead at 2:51 p.m. at Affinity Medical Center. An autopsy performed Wednesday by the Coroner’s Office did not reveal any signs of trauma.
The death is the second in the last six months in Massillon due to a child sleeping with their parents. A 26-day-old infant died Nov. 9 after paramedics were called to a residence, the Coroner’s Office reported. In that incident, a mother was holding her baby when she rolled over in bed, according to Grizzard. The death was ruled accidental.
The majority of infant deaths investigated by the Coroner’s Office are caused by parents sleeping with their children, according to an office spokeswoman. Last year, three infants died as a result of co-sleeping.
Since 2000, 48 sleep-related deaths have been reported in Stark. Most of the deaths were due to sudden infant death syndrome or asphyxia, according to the county health department. However, an unsafe sleeping environment could not be ruled out in some cases in which the manner of death could not be determined.
http://www.cantonrep.com/newsnow/x449516261/Authorities-say-infant-deaths-appears-accidental

SIDS: North Carolina statistics

Sharon McBrayer Published: January 26, 2011

The leading cause of death for children in Catawba County is something going wrong before they are born.
That’s according to a 2009-10 annual report from the Catawba County Community Child Protection/Child Fatality Team. The team, made up of representatives from agencies and groups around the county, review each child death that occurs in the county.
The county had 23 child deaths last fiscal year. Ten children died from prenatal issues in Catawba, while five died from illness, four from motorcycle accidents, one from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and one from homicide.
Two others died from reasons not disclosed, according to the report. Any time a death is ruled undetermined, that decision is made by the medical examiner, said Jennifer McCracken, who serves on the team and is manager of Catawba County Public Health Services.
Of the cases of child death in the county, six had active child protective services involvement, according to information from the team.
The information says child protective services received 2,570 reports. Of the 1,604 cases accepted that met state criteria (3,660 children), 9 percent were reports of abuse and 91 percent were reports of neglect. Information from the report says 92 percent of the families served didn’t have a recurrence of child maltreatment within a 12-month period.
The most recurring issues found were prenatal care, SIDS, unsafe sleeping patterns, motor vehicle accidents, substance abuse and domestic violence issues, according to information supplied by John Eller, director of Catawba County Social Services. The report was presented recently to county commissioners.
Because of what the group learned through reviewing the deaths, it will focus on preventing distracted driving, co-sleeping and prenatal care, McCracken said.
Eller, who serves on the team, said the group also will focus on prevention of abuse and neglect.
“The importance of this team is to focus on child protection and also assess all childhood fatalities regardless of whether social services was involved,” Eller said. “This allows us to focus on this issue from a systemic and community perspective. That is the key.”
McCracken said the state sends the team birth and death records and then it pulls needed records from various agencies, including hospitals. The team, which has more than 20 members, then reviews the death to see what recommendations it can make to prevent the same kind of death from happening in the future, she said.
For instance, because the highest number of child deaths occurred because of prenatal issues, the team will work to get the word out that women need to immediately start care within the first trimester of pregnancy, McCracken said. The team also will focus on distracted driving, she said. 
Eller said, “No one agency, whether it be law enforcement, public health, the court system or social services can ensure the protection of children alone. It takes all of us, public agencies and citizens in the community alike. While North Carolina has made great strides in the protection of children, our resolve should be to strive for prevention through education, advocacy and proper intervention.”
The state just released its 2011 annual report to the Governor and the state General Assembly. Birth defects and other birth-related conditions were the top causes of child fatalities in 2009, with 755 deaths combined, according to the report. The state had a total of 1,486 child deaths in 2009, which was down from 1,573 in 2008, the report says.

http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2011/jan/26/panel-inadequate-prenatal-care-cause-most-child-de-ar-729188/