Research News:
Hearing loss may be a key to SIDS
By Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles Times
Article Last Updated: 07/28/2007 11:30:01 PM MDT
Hearing tests routinely administered to most newborns soon might be used to identify children at risk of sudden infant death syndrome, according to Seattle researchers.
Records of hearing tests administered to 62 infants in Delaware show that those who subsequently died of SIDS had a unique pattern of partial hearing loss, according to a report last week in the journal Early Human Development.
"This discovery opens a whole new line of inquiry into SIDS research," said the lead author, Dr. Daniel Rubens of Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
About 3,600 children die from SIDS each year, generally in the second to fourth months of life and typically in their sleep. Although campaigns to have infants sleep on their backs have reduced the mortality rate, no cause for the deaths has been proved.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Early human development.