Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden death during sleep of an infant younger than one year that remains unexplained after a complete autopsy, death-scene investigation, and review of the clinical history. It is therefore a diagnosis of exclusion, not a diagnosis made from a monitor reading or from a single event such as apnea. SIDS sits within the broader category of sudden unexpected infant death. That broader category can include accidental suffocation, entrapment, infection, metabolic disease, cardiac disease, and other causes. The distinction matters: an infant who is currently apneic, cyanotic, limp, or unresponsive has a live emergency requiring assessment and resuscitation, not a presumptive diagnosis of SIDS. SIDS is not predictable in an individual infant and is not usually explained by one isolated factor. Nursing care focuses on reducing modifiable sleep-related risks while avoiding language that implies a caregiver caused an unexplained death.