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December 12, 2005
Mommy Guilt Debunked
This one's for all you mamas out there who have been riddled with guilt and worry over giving your baby a pacifier.
Guess what? Most of you breastfed successfully anyway, and your little darling will not turn out to be a serial killer after all! Turns out, a pacifier may even have saved your baby's life, if the latest research holds up.
Thanks to Betty Connal, executive director of SIDS Mid-Atlantic (based out of Arlington, VA) for sharing this news release:
Pacifier Use Cuts SIDS, Risk Regardless of Sleep Position
Infants who use a pacifier are at decreased risk for SIDS, regardless of their sleep position, according to a report in the December 9 issue of the British Medical Journal.
A supine sleeping position is widely recommended to reduce the risk of SIDS. The new findings indicate that the benefits of pacifier use apply to supine sleepers, but even more so to infants who sleep prone or with a mother who smokes.
The current study is not the first to suggest a drop in SIDS risk with pacifier use. However, this study examined the association in detail and in the context of other risk factors, while most of the previous studies did not.
To assess the association, Dr. De-Kun Li from Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and colleagues interviewed mothers or caregivers to determine pacifier use in 185 infants who died of SIDS and 312 matched control infants.
Overall, pacifier use cut the risk of SIDS by 92 percent, the report indicates. The benefit of use seemed to be greatest for infants with adverse sleep conditions, such as sleeping with a mother who smoked or sleeping prone.
For example, infants who slept prone or on their sides and did not use a pacifier had a 2.6-fold increased risk of SIDS relative to supine, non-pacifier sleepers. By contrast, prone or side sleepers who did use a pacifier did not have an elevated risk.
A similar finding was observed for infants who slept with a mother who smoked, but in this case, a 4.5-fold increased risk was eliminated with pacifier use.
"In this population-based case-control study, use of a dummy [pacifier] was associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of SIDS," the authors state. "Our observation confirms several previous reports" and goes on to show that pacifier use cuts the risk of SIDS "under all (sleep) conditions examined."
Posted by Sarah at December 12, 2005 10:46 PM.
