Public Health

 

There are numerous of public health issues that can affect a child's development. One issue that is meaningful and personal to me is SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). On February 17, 2005, my nephew Ashaud Oliver was born and seemed to be a healthy baby boy with a promised future ahead. I do not recall his mother having any severe complications during birth or after birth. I would babysit him some nights and hold him, wondering what and who he will be when he grew up. I told him "baby Shaud, you will be an excellent football player and will have opportunities waiting for you." I wanted him to hear that because I know that babies can feel vibes and hear everything that is going on around them. I would lay him across my chest and rock him to sleep as he would leave a little surprise on my clothes (urine). It was always funny to me when he did that because I never felt it on my clothes until I got up the next morning to fix his bottles.  On April 22, 2005, on a normal day and no complications, Ashaud Oliver passed away in his bed and left the world way too soon. Doctor's said it was said to be SIDS, in which I had never heard of this before as I was a senior in high school at the time. I thought how could this happen to him? What went wrong? Many questions played through my mind as I just couldn't understand why my precious nephew was taken away from us so sudden. I often wonder how he would be and what he would look like if he was still with us. Although he was only with us for two months, he indeed left a huge impact on my family. We miss you dearly Ashaud and your mother posted this wonderful picture of you with a nice poem. Rest in Love my baby.

SIDS deaths occur unexpectedly and quickly to apparently healthy infants, usually during periods of sleep. It is not caused by suffocation, choking, smothering, child abuse or neglect. It is something that cannot be prevented even if the parents are doing everything right to raise their healthy baby. Meanwhile, in Mid-Atlantic, researchers feel that there are ways to avoid SIDS from infants. One way to avoid it is to omit the baby from sleeping from his/her tummy. According to their studies, sleeping on the tummy can cause trapped carbon dioxide around the baby's face. They also feel that the parents should not use a pacifier during sleep time because it causes the baby to get into a deep sleep and they are less likely to respond to complications through the night. In the future, I will keep this research in mind as it may be helpful to share with soon to be mothers, although other studies have showed that SIDS cannot be prevented. Hopefully, in the near future, researchers will find ways to prevent SIDS and find out what causes this to happen to our innocent babies.