SIDS and pacifiers

Filed in archive Studies on December 9, 2005

A study touts pacifiers as reducing the risk of SIDS:

A simple device that new parents often use to quiet and comfort their newborns can also reduce the risk of sudden Infant death syndrome (SIDS) by 90 percent, a new study has found.

The device -- a pacifier -- also mitigated other risk factors for SIDS, the first time this has been shown, according to the study in the Dec. 10 issue of the British Medical Journal.

"It's another study that agrees that if you go back and look at women whose babies died of SIDS and compare them to a similar group who didn't, many more of the babies who died of SIDS weren't using pacifiers at that time," said Dr. Ian Holzman, chief of newborn medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

"Almost every study is showing the same thing, which makes one think it may well be true. Pacifiers have got to be the cheapest medical intervention for something in a long time," he said.

A wide-ranging review conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and published in November found that pacifier use reduced the risk of SIDS by 61 percent. The evidence was compelling enough for the AAP to include a recommendation about pacifier use in its updated SIDS guidelines.