Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - SIDs

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as cot death or crib death, is the sudden unexplained death of a child less than one year of age.

Diagnosis requires that the death remains unexplained even after autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usually occurs during sleep. Typically death occurs between the hours of 00:00 and 09:00. There is usually no evidence of struggle and no noise produced.

If one reads the medical literature, they say that "the exact cause of SIDS is unknown."  This is not, however, true.  SIDs has multiple causes including

• sleeping on the stomach or side and not on their back
• overheating
• exposure to tobacco smoke
• accidental suffocation from bedding or bed sharing or soft objects such as toys 
• prematurity - 'Another risk factor is being born before 39 weeks of gestation'.

And there is one proven cause which appears to be being hushed up and even not included in autopsy reports and that is pharmaceuticals - particularly over the counter pharmaceuticals such as cough medicines.  See observations below.
Given that there are women in jail accused of murdering their babies from the evidence of men who have promoted the idea of 'shaken baby syndrome' in cases of SIDs, it seems that in the cases where the mothers concerned pleaded their innocence and anguish to the last, it might be worth revisiting their cases.

Observations

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• Infant deaths associated with cough and cold medications--two states, 2005.
• Over-the-counter cough and cold medication use in young children
• Sudden infant deaths and cough syrup
• Unexpected infant deaths associated with use of cough and cold medications