pediatrics
Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Introduction
Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) is a term used to describe any unexpected and sudden death in a child less than 1 year of age, which often occurs during sleep or in the infant's sleep area. Common types of SUID include sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed. Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) is a term to describe a sudden and unexpected death in an infant less than 1 year old, whether explained or unexplained, occurring during infancy. Definitions of the term vary; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definition includes only deaths in which the cause was not obvious before investigation ( References ), whereas the American Academy of Pediatrics definition includes both explained and unexplained deaths ( Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a subset of SUID and is the sudden and unexpected death of an infant or young child between 1 month and 1 year of age in which an examination of the death scene, thorough postmortem examination, and clinical history fail to show cause. The other subset of SUID includes those sudden and unexpected child deaths where a cause, such as asphyxiation, strangulation, an infection, a metabolic disorder, or any other identified cause, is found. SIDS is the most common cause of death in infants between 1 month and 1 year of age ( References ), accounting for 35 to 55% of all deaths in this age group ( There are racial and ethnic disparities; from 2015 to 2019, rates of SUID were highest in non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives, non-Hispanic Black people, and non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islanders. Peak incidence is between the second and fourth months of life. 