Benefit walks are planned in seven Iowa cities on Saturday for the state chapter of the SIDS Foundation . It’s the tenth year for the Iowa events to raise money for research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Foundation executive director Patty Keeley says SIDS is the leading cause of death for infants between one and 12 months of age. She says SIDS is the sudden and unexpected death of an infant under age one. A diagnosis of exclusion means that everything else has been ruled out after an autopsy and a clinical review of both the child and the mother’s pre-and-post-natal history.
Keeley says one of the possible causes of SIDS death deals with the baby’s brain stem. She says what’s found during autopsy is a brain stem abnormality that leaves the baby potentially vulnerable. Keeley says the foundation does a number of things to help parents who have suffered a loss and to help parents of healthy newborns.
She says they do education about SIDS, they provide support to those who have had a baby die from SIDS, as well as donate a portion of proceeds to SIDS research. Walks on Saturday will take place in: Albia, Cedar Rapids, Keswick, Waterloo, Mason City, Pleasant Hill and Washington.