Dr Bruce Beckwith defined Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in 1969 as 'the sudden death of an infant or young child which is unexplained by history and in which a thorough post-mortem examination fails to demonstrate an adequate cause of death'.
The Department of Health recommends six key messages for parents and carers to help prevent SIDS. These are: Place a baby on its back to sleep; keep baby's head uncovered and place the baby in the 'feet to foot' position; do not let the baby get too hot; If the baby is unwell, seek medical advice promptly; cut out smoking in pregnancy (by fathers too!); do not let anyone smoke in the same room as the baby.
These key messages have reduced the SIDS incidence rate dramatically, saving thousands of infants' lives since their introduction in the 'Back to Sleep' campaign in 1992. Nevertheless, every year approximately 500 infants in England and Wales still die from SIDS.
Teaching the key messages is an area that should be developed when working with parents in antenatal and postnatal classes, or in any arena. Nursery nurses and early years workers are now more involved in these sessions, facilitating parents' learning.
One approach piloted with 200 parents used an interactive educational game that incorporated role-playing by the parents, demonstrations, and question and answers. The parents were divided into teams, and gained a 'key' for each correct answer. The first team to collect six keys - all the key messages - won. The parents participating in the game found this helped them remember the key messages, with about 80 per cent implementing all the key messages into their day-to-day parenting practices. It was fun, and non-threatening, and as they were in teams they learned from each other as well as the leader facilitating the session.
This is one way early years professionals can aid in the development of SIDS intervention strategies that are more on parents' terms.
