Call for national standards in cot death probes

THE National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) register has called for national protocols to be put in place for the investigation of sudden infant deaths.

The organisation is calling for the standardisation of postmortem procedures, a review of the clinical history of the baby and a thorough death scene investigation.

According to researchers with the SIDS register, the failure to properly classify these deaths is creating misleading statistics which limit scientists’ abilities to identify the risk factors and causes of such deaths. They also say there is evidence that some sudden infant deaths have a definable cause that could be revealed by careful investigation of the death scene.